Class S84S7 

Book_ ^3 

Copyright 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



A Little Garden 
Calendar 

For Boys and Girls 



by 

Albert Bigelow Paine 

Author of ''The Little Lady^ Her Book,'' 
''The Arkansaw Bear'' Etc, 

With Forty-six Illustrations 



PHILADELPHIA 
HENRY ALT EMUS COMPANY 



Copyright, igos, by Henry Alt emus 
Published March, i^os 



LIBRARY of CONaRtSS 
I wo Copies rteceivtfij 

OLASS AAc* No; 

COPY B. 



^^^^ 




BY THE SAME AUTHOR 



The Little Lady, Her Book, $i.oo 

The Arkansaw Bear, ......... i.oo 

The Wanderings of Joe and Little Em, .50 



A Word to Teachers and Parents 

When Dr. S. P. Langley, Secretary of the 
Smithsonian Institution, established the Chil- 
dren's Room in that great museum, he took for 
his motto, ' ' Knowledge begins in wonder, ' ' and 
he put into this room a selection of specimens 
especially intended to excite interest in the young 
mind. The biggest bird and the littlest were 
placed side by side ; curious eggs, nests, and in- 
sects—not many in number, but temptingly 
displayed— were ranged about to attract atten- 
tion and to awake the desire to know more. It 
was the same Dr. Langley who had once declared 
that his chief interests in life were children and 
fairy stories, and it is in the little Washington 
room that we seem to find the thought embodied, 
for the children are there, and the fairy stories 
of nature are suggested on every hand. 

It is with Dr. Langley 's motto in mind that 
the ''Little Garden Calendar" is offered to 

V 



vi 



INTRODUCTION 



parents and teachers, and to children them- 
selves who are old enough to read. The author 
has tried to tell in simple language a few of the 
w^onders of plant life, and to set down certain 
easy methods of observation, including planting, 
tending, and gathering the harvests, from month 
to month, throughout the year. Along with this 
it has been his aim to call attention to the more 
curious characteristics of certain plants— the 
really human instincts and habits of some, the 
family relations of others, the dependence of 
many upon mankind, animals, and insects, and 
the struggle for existence of all. Simple botany 
plays a part in the little narrative, which forms 
a continuous story from chapter to chapter, 
interwoven with a number of briefer stories- 
traditions, fairy tales, and the like, all relating 
to plant life and origin. These are presented by 
way of entertainment— to illuminate fact with 
fancy— to follow, as it were, the path of knowl- 
edge through the garden of imagination. 

Th_e illustrations in this book are from excel- 



INTRODUCTION 



vii 



lent photographs— especially made for the 
various chapters— that the student of plant life 
may compare and identify with some degree of 
assurance as to varieties and particular speci- 
mens, especially in the matter of plant organ- 
isms. The volume is divided according to the 
calendar, for the reason that in the plant world 
there is interest for every month in the year if 
only someone is by to point the way, and it is 
for this purpose that the little story of Prue and 
Davy and their garden is offered to instructors 
in the schoolroom and at home, and to the young 
people themselves, with the greetings and good 
wishes of 

The Author. 



CONTENTS 



PAGE 



January, 



13 



I 



You may begin your garden right away 



II 



Your garden may not look as I have it here 



III 



Many seeds are given wings 



IV 



I think seeds know the months 



Februaey, 



43 



I Little plants won't stand much handling 

II Hey for the merry little sweet pease 

III Even clover belongs to the pulse family 

IV Beans and morning-glories twine to the right 
V The honeysuckle twines always to the left 

March, 73 

I Still it was really a radish 

II The sun swings like a great pendulum 

III Long before there were any railroads and cities 

IV Did you ever see the little man in the pansy ? 



IX 



X CONTENTS 

PAGE 

April," 103 

I The yellow dust is a food for the seed 
II The coming of the corn 

III Cross by name and cross by nature 

IV A peppery family 

V For in that dish was Davy's corn 

May, 131 

I Sweet pease have to be put down pretty deep 
II Different families of ants have different droves of 
cows 

III There are many ways of producing species 

June, 159 

I Then they went down into the strawberry patch 

II How the rose became queen 

III The sun is the greatest of all 

July, 187 

I A plant is divided into three principal parts 
II There are exogens and endogens 
III I don't see what weeds are for, anyway 



CONTENTS 



XI 



PAGE 



August, 



211 



I 



There are just two kinds of leaves 



II 



Sometimes 1 think plants can see and hear 



III 



There are plants which do not bloom 



IV 



The princess by the sea 



September, 



241 



I A flower really has clothes 

II A flower has many servants 

III A flower may really reason 

IV Some flowers live off other flowers and plants 
V The prince and the thread of gold 

October, 267 

I Seeds are made to be planted 

ir There are bitter nuts and sweet ones 

III There are many things called fruits 

November, 291 

I There are annuals, biennials, and perennials 

II Plants know how to spread 

III All thanks for the plants 



xii CONTENTS 

December, 

I New gardens in the windows 
II To the garden of sleep 

III In the gardens of Christmas 

IV Some verses, and then good-by 



\ 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

Frontispiece 

Davy's window— Prue's window 19 

The beans at the end of two weeks .... 23 

The morning-glories two weeks old 27 

The pot of radishes 35 

The pease two weeks old 37 

The corn at the end of two weeks 47 

The pease run up straight ladders . . . . . 53 
A member of the pulse family . . . . . 59 
The morning-glory twines to the right . . . .65 
The nasturtiums began to hide the little pot . . 75 
The very small lettuce leaves . . . . . .81 

Davy's pot of radishes . 93 

** Davy's corn sent out a plnme at the top '' . . .97 
**The morning-glories had bloomed and already had seed 

pods'* . . .113 

xiii 



xiv ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 

*' Cabbage " was the fat fellow's name .... 115 

They called it nasturtium " 121 

Alyssum— the sw.eetest of the " Cross " family . . 123 
Don't you think the blackberry looks a little like a wild 

rose?'* . 135 

" And the apple blossom, too?" ..... 139 

Budding . . . ... . . . .149 

The Chief Gardener's strawberries . . . .161 

Big, big berries that looked so good 165 



The rose stamens and pistil which produce the seed . 175 
Gardeners often take a rose of one kind and shake it 

gently over a rose of another kind . . . . 178 
Sometimes the gardener takes up the pollen on a soft 
brush and lays it gently on the stigma of another 

rose'* 179 

The pistil and stamens of the lily 192 

A pistil and calyx and a complete flower . . . 193 

A group of endogens — the lily, hyacinth, and daflbdil . 195 

Some simple leaves . . 217 

Pine-needles are leaves 218 



ILLUSTRATIONS xv 

PAGE 

There is a lot of kinds and shapes 221 

Beware of the vine v> ith the three- part leaf . . 253 

The dandelion is bound to spread its seed . . . 256 

So it blooms below the lawn-mower's cutting- wheel . 257 

They cling to everything that passes " . . . 269 

Three members of the acorn family ..... 277 

The apple is a calyx. The pistil is the core inside of it 283 

A raspberry is a cluster of pistils without the core . . 285 

The seed and sets of the onion 295 

A black raspberry vine preparing to spread . . . 299 

''What are stuck-ins?— oh, slips !" .... 301 
The wool that growls on the sheep's back is there because 

the sheep feeds on the green grass in summer . . 307 

A Japanese fern-ball 316 

The kind of a tree that nobody but Santa Glaus ever raises 323 



JANUARY 



2— -A Little Garden Calendar 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



JANUARY 



I 



YOU MAY BEGIN YOUR GARDEN RIGHT AWAY 

"^HIS is the story of a year, and begins on 



1 New Year's day. It is the story of a 
garden— a little garden— and of a little 
boy and girl who owned the garden, and of the 
Chief Gardener, who helped them. 

And the name of the little boy was David, after 
his grandfather. So they called him Davy, be- 
cause when grandfather was a little boy, he had 
been called Davy, and this little boy wanted to be 
just as his grandfather had been— just the same 
kind of a little boy, with the same name and all. 
And the name of the little girl was Prudence, 




A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



and she was called Prue. For when her mother 
was a little girl, she had been called Prue, and 
the Chief Gardener still called her that, some- 
times, when he did not call her just Mamma. 
And the little girl was five years old, and the 
little boy was 'most seven— ^ Agoing -on seven" 
the little boy always said, when you asked him. 

The garden was in a window, at first— in two 
windows, side by side— called a double window. 
It had to be in a window, because outside it was 
very cold, and the snow was white and deep on 
the beds where the Chief Gardener had flowers 
and vegetables in summer-time. 

Prue and Davy were looking out on this white, 
snow-covered garden on New Year's afternoon. 
Christmas was over, and spring seemed far 
away. And there had been so much snow that 
they were tired of their sleds. 

^^I wish it would be warm again," said Davy, 
^^so there would be strawberries and nice things 
to eat in the garden; don't you, Prue?" 

^^And nice green grass, and dandelions and 

14 



J A X U A R Y 

pinks and morning-glories," said Prue, who 
loved flowers. 

Then the little girl went over to where the 
Chief Gardener was reading. She leaned over 
his knee and rocked it back and forth. 

^^Will it ever be warm again?'' she asked. 

Will we ever have another garden?" 

The Chief Gardener turned another page of 
his paper. Prue rocked his knee harder. 

' ' I want it to be warm, ' ' she said. ' ' I want it 
to be so we can plant flowers. ' ' 

^^And things," put in Davy, ^^nice things, to 
eat; pease and berries and radishes." 

^^Oh, Davy, you always want things to eat!" 
said the little girl. We've just had our New 
Year 's dinner ! ' ' 

^^But I'd be hungry again before the things 
grew, wouldn't I? And you like strawberries, 
too, and short-cake." 

The Chief Gardener laid down his paper. 
• What's all this about strawberry short-cake 
and morning-glories?" he asked. 

15 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



^^We want it to be warm," said Prue, ^^so we 
can have a garden, with pinks and pansies— " 

^^And pease—" began Davy. 

^^And a short-cake tree," put in the Chief 
Gardener, ^'with nice short-cakes covered with 
whipped cream, hanging on all the branches. 
That would suit you, wouldn't it, Davy boy?" 

The very thought of a tree like that made 
Davy silent with joy; but Prue still rocked the 
knee and talked. 

^^When icill it be warm? When can we have 
a garden?" she kept asking. 

^^It is warm, noiv, in this room," said the Chief 
Gardener, ^^and you may begin your garden 
right away, if you like." 

The children looked at him, not knowing just 
what he meant. 

^^In the window," he went on. There are 
two, side by side. They are a part of the gar- 
den, you know, for we always see the garden 
through them, in summer. You remember, we 
said last vear tliev were like frames for it. Now, 

16 



JANUARY 



suppose we really put a little piece of garden in 
the windows. ' ' 

Prue was already dancing. 

* * Oh, yes ! And I '11 have pansies, and roses, 
and hollyhocks, and pinks, and morning-glories, 
and-" 

^^And I'll have peaches, and apples, and 
strawberries, and pease—" 

' ' And a field of corn and wheat, ' ' laughed the 
Chief Gardener, ' ' and a grove of cocoanut trees ! 
What magic windows we must have to hold all 
the things you have named. They will be like 
the pack of Santa Claus— never too full to hold 
more. ' ' 

^^But can't we have all the things we like?" 
asked Davy, anxiously. 

^^Not quite all, I'm afraid. The hollyhocks 
and roses that Prue wants do not bloom the first 
year from seed. It would hardly pay to plant 
them in a window-garden, and as for peach and 
apple trees, I am afraid you would get very 
tired waiting for them to bear. It takes at least 

17 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



five years for apple-trees to give us fruit, often 
much longer. Peach-trees bear about the third 
year. I think we would better try a few things 
that bloom and bear a little more quickly." 

II 

YOUR GABDEN MAY NOT LOOK AS I HAVE IT HERE 

The Chief Gardener took his pencil and a 
piece of paper, and drew a little plan. He was 
not much of an artist, and sometimes when he 
drew things he had to write their names below, 
so that Prue and Davy could tell which was the 
rabbit and which was the donkey, and so they 
wouldn't think the kitten was a lion. But a win- 
dow was not so hard, and then he could put 
names under the plants, too. On the next page 
is the picture that the Chief Gardener drew. 

While he was making the picture, the children 

had been asking questions. 

Which is mv side? Oh, what's that in tliG 

center— that tall plant? What are those vines? 

i8 



JANUARY 



What will we have in those littlest pots ? Oh, I 
know what those are! Those are morning- 
glories ! Oh, goody ! ' ' 

The last was from Prue, when she saw the 





□ 




□ 


i 








r 








DAVY'S WINDOW PRUE'S WINDOW 



artist putting the flowers along the vines that 
he had made climbing up the sides of her win- 
dow. 

^^Yes," said the Chief Gardener, those are 

J9 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



morning-glories. You can have two vines in 
each pot, if yon wish, and in that way get four 
colors— blue, white, purple, and pink. On 
Davy's side I have made climbing beans— scarlet 
and white runners— because they are very 
pretty, and also very good to eat. Davy's is a 
vegetable, and yours a flower, garden. Then, if 
Davy wants some flowers, and you get hungry, 
you can give him flowers for vegetables." 

^'Oh, that will be playing ^market,' won't it! 
I just love to play ^ store' and Agoing to 
market.' " 

*^My beans look a good deal like Prue's morn- 
ing-glories, all but the flowers, ' ' said Davj. 

''So they do, Davy ; and they really look some- 
thing the same in the garden. The leaves are 
nearly the same shape, only that the morning- 
glory's is more heart-shaped, and then beans 
have three leaves to the stem instead of one. 
Sometimes I have taken a morning-glory for a 
bean, just at first." 

''Wliat else have we?" asked Prue, ''What 



20 



JANUARY 



are the little flowers, and the big one in the 

center ! ' ' 

If the Chief Gardener felt hurt because his 
pictures did not show just what all the flowers 
were, without telling, he did not say so. He 
said : 

^^Well, in the center of your window, Prue, 
the big flower is made for a sunflower. Not the 
big kind, but the small western sunflower, such 
as we had along the back fence last summer. I 
think we can raise those in the house. ' ' 

' ' I just love those, ' ' nodded Prue. 

'^Then those two slender plants are sweet- 
pease on your side, and garden-pease on Davy 's. 
I put tv/o in each window, because I know that 
you love sweet-pease, while Davy is very fond 
of the vegetable kind. ' ' 

^ ^ I 'd like a whole bushel of sweet-pease ! ' ' said 
Prue. 

' ' And T wish I had a bushel of eating pease ! ' ' 
said Davy, '^and I know that's sweet corn in 
the middle of my window. I just love it!'* 

21 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



' ' Yes, ' ' said the Chief Gardener, ' ' and a little 
pot of radishes on one side, and a pot of lettuce 
salad on the other. Do you think you like that, 
Davyf' 

Can't I have strawberries, instead of the 
salad!" asked Davy. 

^^Strawberries don't bear from seed the first 
season, and I can't remember any fruit that 
does, unless you call tomatoes fruit, and I don't 
think a tomato vine would be quite pleasant in 
the house. It doesn 't always have a sweet odor. ' ' 

^^Oh, well, I can eat lettuce," said Davy. ^^I 
can eat anything that's good." 

^^What are in my other little pots?" asked 
Prue for the third or fourth time. 

Well, one is meant for a pot of pansies — " 

' ' Oh, pansies ! pansies ! Can 't I have two pots 
of pansies?" 

^^You can have three or four plants in one pot 
—perhaps that will do. Then you can put 
nasturtiums in the other little pot. They are 
easy to grow, and very beautiful. ' ' 

22 



JANUARY 



^^Yes," said Prue, ^^I never saw anything so 
lovellj as yonr nasturtiums by the house, last 
year. ' ' 

The Chief Gardener looked at the sketch and 
tapped it with his pencil. 




THE BEANS AT THE END OF TWO WEEKS 



^^Of course," he said, '^your garden may not 
look just as I have it here. I don't draw very 
well, but I can make things about the right sizes 
to fit the windows, and that isn't so hard to do 

23 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



with a pencil as it is with the plants themselves. 

Plants, like children, don't always grow just as 

their friends want them to, and thev are not al- 

ways well behaved. You see— 

'^But won't my bean vines and corn grow np 

like that!" asked Bslvy. 

t/ 

^^And won't my morning-glories have flowers 
on them?" asked Prne. 

^^I hope they will, and we will try to coax 
them. But you see things may happen. Some- 
times it comes a very cold night when the fires 
get low, and then plants are likely to chill, or 
perhaps freeze and die. We can only try to be 
very careful. ' ' 

^'How long will it take them to grow?" asked 
Davy. 

^^That is not easy to say. When everything 
is just right, some seeds start very soon. I have 
known radishes to pop up within three days, 
when the weather was warm and damp. Corn 
will sprout in about a week, in warm weather. 
Sweet-pease take a good deal longer, though we 

24 



JANUARY 



can hurry them a little by soaking them in warm 
water before we plant them. But we will talk 
about all that later. First, let's see about the 
pots and earth, and the seeds. ' ' 

III 

MANY SEEDS ARE GIVEN WINGS 

The Chief Gardener took Davy and Prue 
down in the basement, where in one corner he 
kept his flower-pots and garden-tools. 

^^I'm going to use the hoe," said Davy, 
reaching for the long handle. 

' ^ I '11 have the rake for my garden, ' ' said Prue. 

The Chief Gardener smiled. 

^^I don't think we'll need either for this gar- 
dening. A small weeder or an old kitchen-knife 
will be about the largest tool you can use. ' ' 

Then he picked out some pots, set them side 
by side on a table, and measured them to see 
how long a row they made. Then he changed 
them and measured again. 

25 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



There," he said, ^Hhose will just fit one 
window. Now, another set for the other window 
and we are ready for the soil." 

Where will you get dirt? Everything is 
frozen hard," said Davy. 

The Chief Gardener took up a spading-fork 
from among the tools. 

^^We'll get our hats and coats, first," he said, 
^'then we'll see what we can find." 

Outside it was really very cold, but the chil- 
dren, with their thick wraps, did not mind. They 
raced in the snow across the empty little garden, 
and followed the Chief Gardener to a small 
mound in one corner. Here he pushed away the 
snow, and with the fork lifted up a layer of 
frozen-looking weeds; then another layer, not 
quite so frozen and not quite so weedy ; then still 
another layer that did not seem at all frozen, but 
was just a mass of damp leaves and bits of grass. 
And under this layer it must have been quite 
warm, for steam began to rise white in the cold 
air. 

26 



JANUARY 



^^Oh, see!" said Prue. ^'What makes the 
smoke ? ' ' 

' ' That 's steam, ' ' said Davy, wisely ; ' ' but what 
makes it warm 1 ' ' 

Fever," said the Chief Gardener, ^^jiist as 
yon had, Davy, that night yon ate too mnch 




THE MORNING-GLORIES TWO WEEKS OLD 



layer-cake. Yon said yon were bnrning np, bnt 
it was only natnre trying to bnrn np the extra 
food. That is what natnre is doing here— trying 
to bnrn np and tnrn to earth the pile of weeds 
and grass I threw here last snmmer for compost. 

3—^ Little Garden Calendar 27 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



Next spring the fire will be out, and leave only 
a heap of rich soil for the garden." 

Beneath the last layer there was warm, dark 
earth. The Chief Gardener filled the basket he 
had brought, and they hurried back to the base- 
ment to fill the pots. 

^^Not too full— we must leave room at the top 
for digging and watering, without spilling dirt 
and water on the floor. Then the plants will 
help fill up by and by, too, and I think we would 
better put in a little of this compost at the bot- 
tom. "VA^ien the roots run down they will be glad 
to find some fresh, rich food. Don't pack the 
earth too tightly, Davy; just jar the pot a little 
to settle it, and it should be fine and quite dry. 
Perhaps we'd better dry it a little," the Chief 
Gardener added, as he saw bv the children's 
hands that some of the earth was rather damp 
and sticky. 

So he brought out a flat box, emptied all 
the pots into it, and set the box on top of the 
furnace. 

28 



JANUARY 



* ' While it 's drying, we '11 go upstairs and pick 
out the seeds, ' ' he said. 

' ' Oh, see my beans ! How pretty they are ! ' ' 
cried Davy, as the Chief Gardener pointed out 
the purple-mottled seeds of the scarlet runners. 

Prue looked a little envious. She was fond of 
pretty things. 

^^But my pease are better-looking than those 
crinkly things of yours,'' she said; ^^mine are 
most like little beads; and see my nasturtium 
seed! They look good to eat, like little pea- 
nuts. ' ' 

It was Davy's turn now to be envious. Any- 
thing that looked like peanuts must be very good 
to eat. 

People often pickle nasturtium pods," said 
the Chief Gardener. ^^They are fine and pep- 
pery. So Prue will really have something to eat 
in her garden, while Davy will have beautiful 
flowers on his scarlet runners. ' ' 

^^See my morning-glory seed, like quarters 
of a little black apple, and how tiny my 

29 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



pansy seeds are!'' cried Prue, holding out the 
papers. 

Davy was looking at the little round, brown 
kernels that the Chief Gardener had said were 
radish seeds, and the light little flakes that were 
to grow into lettuce. 

'^AATiat makes seeds so different?" he asked 
soberly. 

^ ^ Ah, Davy, that is a hard question, ' ' answered 
the Chief Gardener. ^ ^ A great many very great 
people have tried to answer it. " 

He opened a little paper and held it out for 
them to see. 

^^What funny little feather-tops!" said Prue. 

^^Like little darts," said Davy. ^'What are 
they!" 

Marigold seeds. They are very light, and 
the little tufts or wings are to carry them 
through the air, so they will be scattered and 
sown by the wind. Many seeds are given wings 
of different kinds. Maple seeds have a real pair 
of wings. Others have a tuft of down on them, 

30 



J A N U A R Y 



so light that they are carried for miles. But 
many seeds are hard to explain. Plants 
very nearly alike grow from seeds that are not 
at all alike, while plants as different as can be 
grow from seeds that can hardly be told apart, 
even under the magnifying-glass. ' ' 

The pots filled with the warm earth were 
brought up and ranged in the windows. 

^^How deep, and how many seeds in a potl" 
asked Davy. 

^^That depends," the Chief Gardener an- 
swered, believe there is a rule that says to 
plant twice as deep as the seed is long, though 
sweet-pease and some other things are planted 
deeper ; and you may plant more seeds than you 
want plants, so that enough are pretty sure to 
grow; four beans in each pot, Davy— two white 
and two colored, and three grains of corn in the 
large center pot. ' ' 

The children planted the seeds— the Chief 
Gardener helping, showing how to cover them 
with fine earth— the corn and beans quite deeply, 

31 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



the sweet-pease still deeper, fully an inch or 
more, the smaller seeds thinlv and evenlv : then 
how to pat them down so that the earth might be 
lightly but snugly packed about the sleeping 
seeds. 

^^Xow we will dampen them a little," he said, 
^*and when they feel their covering getting 
moist, perhaps they will think of waking. ' ' 

So he brought a cup of warm water, and the 
children dipped in their fingers and sprinkled the 
earth in each pot until it was quite damp. Then 
they drew up chairs and sat down to look at their 
garden, as if expecting the things to grow while 
they waited. 

IV 

I THINK SEEDS KNOW THE MONTHS 

But the seeds did not sprout that day, nor the 
next, nor for many days after they were planted. 

Prue and Davy watered them a little every 
morning, and were quite sure the room had been 

32 



JANUARY 



warm, but it takes sunshine, too, to make seeds 
tliink of waking from their long nap, and the sun 
does not always shine in January. Even when 
it does, it is so low in the sky, and stays such a 
little time each day, that it does not find its way 
down into the soil as it does in spring and sum- 
mer time. 

' ' You said that corn sprouts in a week, ' ' said 
Davy to the Chief Gardener, one morning, ' ' and 
it's a week to-day since we planted it, and even 
the radishes are not up yet." 

Prue also looked into her little row of pots, 
and said sadly that there was not even a little 
teeny-w^eeny speck of anything coming up that 
she could see. 

^^I'm sorry," said the Chief Gardener, ^^but 
you know I really can't make the sun shine, and 
even if I could, perhaps they would be slow about 
coming, at this season. Sometimes I think seeds 
know the months as well as we do, for I have 
known seeds to sprout in June in a place where 
there wac very little warmth or moisture and 

33 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



no sunshine at all. Yes, I think the seeds 
know. ' ' 

' ' And won 't my pansies come at all f ' ' whim- 
pered little Prue. 

' ' Oh, I think so. They only need a little more 
coaxing. Suppose we see just what is going on. 
You planted a few extra radish seeds, Davy. We 
will do as little folks often do— dig up one and 
see what has happened. ' ' 

So the Chief Gardener dug down with his 
pocket-knife and lifted a bit of the dirt, which 
he looked at carefully. Then he held it to the 
light and let the children look. Sticking to the 
earth there was a seed, but it was no longer the 
tiny brown thing which Davy had planted. It 
was so large that Davy at first thought it was 
one of his pease, and on one side of it there was 
an edge of green. 

^^It's all right, Davy boy. They'll be up in a 
day or two,'' laughed the Chief Gardener. 
^^Now, we'll try a pansy." 

' '^Oh, yes, try a pansy ! try a pansy ! ' ' danced 

34 



JANUARY 



little Prue, who was as happy as Davy over the 
sprouting of the radish. 

So the Chief Gardener dug down into the 
pansy-pot, but just at first could not find a pansy 
seed, they were so small. Then he did find one, 
and coming out of it were two tiny pale-green 




THE POT OF RADISHES 



leaves, and a thread of white rootlet that had 
started downward. 

Prue clapped her hands and wanted the Chief 
Gardener to dig in all the pots, but he told them 

35 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



that it would not be good gardening to do that, 
and that they must be patient now, and wait. 
So then another anxious week went by. iVnd all 
at once, one morning very early, Prue and Davy 
came shouting up the stairs to where the Chief 
Gardener was shaving. 

' ' They 're up ! They 're up ! " 

^ ' My pansies ! ' ' 

* ' And my radishes ! They 've lifted up a piece 
of dirt over every seed, and there's one little 
green point in the corn-pot, too!" 

The Chief Gardener had to leave his shaving 
to see. Sure enough! Davy's radishes and 
Prue 's pansies were beginning to show, and one 
tender shoot of Davy's corn. And in less than 
another week Davy's lettuce and pease and 
beans were breaking the ground above each 
seed, while Prue's garden was coming too, all 
but the sweet-pease, which, because of their 
hard shell, sprouted more slowly, even though 
they had been soaked in warm water before 
planting. But in another week they began to 

36 



J A N U A R Y 



show, too, and everything else was quite above 
ground. 

Then the Chief Gardener dug up one each of 
the extra seeds, root and all, and showed them 
just how they had sprouted and started to grow. 




THE PEASE TWO WEEKS OLD 



He showed them how the shell or husk of the seed 
still clung to the two first leaves of some of the 
morning-glory and radish plants, how when the 

37 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



little plant had awakened from its long nap, it 
had stretched, just as a little boy would stretch, 
getting up out of bed, and how, being hungry, it 
had made its breakfast on a part of the tender 
kernel packed about it in the seed, and then 
pushed its leaves up for light and air. He also 
showed them how the grain of corn and the pea 
stayed below the ground to feed the little shoots 
that pushed up and the sprangled roots that were 
starting down to hunt for richness. But they all 
laughed at the beans, for the beans left only the 
husk below and pushed the rich kernel up into 
the air— coming up topsy-turvy, Davy said, 
while Prue thought the leaves must be very 
greedy to take the kernel all away from the roots, 
instead of leaving it where both could have a 
share. 

And now another week passed, and other tiny 
leaves began to show on most of the plants. 
These were diiferent shaped from the first oval 
or heart-shaped seed-leaves — real, natural 
leaves, Prue said, such as they would have when 

38 



JANUARY 



they were grown. Only the corn did not change, 
but just unfolded and grew larger. 

And so in every pot there were tender green 
promises of fruit and flower. The little garden 
was really a garden at last. 



39 



FEBRUARY 



FEBRUARY 



I 



LITTLE PLANTS WON 't STAND MUCH HANDLING 

/ET the little garden seemed to grow slowly. 



1 The sun in February was getting farther 
to the north, and came earlier and stayed 
later than it had in January, and was brighter, 
too. But for all that, to Davy and Prue, each 
new leaf came quite slowly— just a tiny point or 
bud at first, then a little green heart or oval or 
crinkly oblong with a wee stem of its own. It 
was very hard to see each morning, just what 
had grown since the morning before. 

Of course they did grow— little by little, and 
inch by inch— just as children grow, and a good 
deal faster, for when they measured their bean 
and morning-glory vines, they found one morn- 

4—^ Little Garden Calendar 43 




A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



ing that they had grown at least a half an inch 
since the day before, and that would be a good 
deal for a little boy or girl to grow in one day. 

But Davy perhaps remembered the story of 

Jack and the Beanstalk" and how Jack's bean 
had grown to the sky in a very short time ; and, 
of course, remembering a story like that is apt 
to make anybody impatient with a bean that 
grows only half an inch a day. 

' ' I think it would be a good plan, ' ' he said one 
morning, ' ' to tie a rubber band to the top of each 
of my bean vines, and then fasten the other end 
higher up the window to help pull the vines 
along. ' ' 

And little Prue said : 

^^I pulled my morning-glories along yester- 
day a little, with my fingers. I know they grew 
a tiny speck then, but they don't look quite so 
nice this morning. ' ' 

The Chief Gardener came over to see what was 
going on. 

' 'I don't think we'd better try any new plans, 

44 



FEBRUARY 



he said. ^^I'm afraid if we pull our plants to 
make them grow, we will have to pull them up 
altogether, pretty soon, and plant new ones. 
Tender little plants won 't stand much handling. ' ' 

The Chief Gardener was not cross, but his 
voice was quite solemn. Little Prue looked 
frightened and her lip quivered the least bit. 

^^Oh, will my morning-glories die now?" she 
asked; ^^and I pulled the pansies just a tiny 
speck, too. Will they die ? ' ' 

'^Not this time, I think; but I wouldn't do it 
again. Just give them a little water now and 
then, and dig in the pots a little, and turn them 
around sometimes so that each side of the plant 
gets the light, and nature will do the rest. Of 
course you can't turn the bean and morning- 
glory pots after they get to climbing the strings, 
but they will twine round and round and so turn 
themselves. Your garden looks very well for 
the time of year. Perhaps if you did not watch 
it so much it would grow faster. They say that 
a watched pot never boils, so perhaps a watched 

45 



A LITTLE GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



plant does not grow well. I am sure they do 
not like to be stretched up to a measuring-stick 
every morning at eight o'clock. Suppose now 
we put up the strings for the morning-glories 
and beans to climb on, and some nice branchy 
twigs for the pease, then water them well and 
leave them for a few days and see what hap- 
pens." 

So then the Chief Gardener and the two little 
gardeners went down in the basement, where 
they found some tiny screw-hooks and some 
string, and where they cut some nice sprangly 
little limbs from the Christmas tree that still 
stood in one corner, and was getting very dry. 
Then they all came up again and put up strings 
for the scarlet runners and morning-glories, by 
tying one end of each string to a stout little 
stick which the Chief Gardener pushed care- 
fully into the soil between the plants, and then 
carried the string to the small screw-hooks, 
which were put about half-way up, and at the 
top of the window-casings. The branchy twigs 

46 



FEBRUARY 



were stuck carefully into the pots where the 
pease grew, and stood up straight and fine— 
like little ladders, Prue said— for the pease to 
climb. 

*^It's just like a circus," said Davy. ^'The 




THE CORN AT THE END OF TWO WEEKS 



beans and morning-glories will be climbing 
ropes, and the pease will be running up straight 
ladders. ' ' 

^^And while we are waiting for the perform- 
ance to begin," added the Chief Gardener, 

47 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 

suppose you let me tell you something about 
the performers— where they came from, and 
some stories that are told of them." 

II 

HEY FOR THE MERRY LITTLE SWEET-PEA 

The Chief Gardener went into the next room, 
which was the library, and drew a cozy little 
settee up before the bright hickory fire. It was 
just wide enough for three, and when he sat 
down, Dav}' and Little Prue promptly hopped 
up, one on each side. In a low rocker near the 
window Big Prue was doing something with 
silks and needles and a very bright pair of 
scissors. The Chief Gardener stirred the fire 
and looked into it. Then he said: 

^'Speaking of pease, I wonder if you ever 
heard this little song about 

'the two peas 

^Oh, a little sweet-pea in the garden grew — 
Hey, for the merry little SAveet-pea! 

48 



FEBRUARY 



And a garden-pea, it grew there, too — 
Hi, for the happy little eat-pea! 
In all kinds of weather 
They grew there together — 
Ho, for the pease in the garden! 
Hey, for the sweet-pea! Hi, for the eat-pea I 
Hey, he, hi, ho, hum! 

*0h, the sweet-pea bloomed and the eat-pea bore — 
Hey, for the merry little sweet-pea! 
And they both were sent to a poor man^s door — 
Hi, for the happy little eat-pea! 
In all kinds of weather 
They came there together! 
Ho, for the pease from the garden! 
Hey, for the sweet-pea! Hi, for the eat-pea! 
Hey, he, hi, ho, hum! 

*Now, the poor man^s poor little girl lay ill — 

What a chance for a merry little sweet-pea! 
And there wasn^t a cent in the poor man's till — 
Good-by to the jolly little eat-pea! 
In all kinds of weather 
They brought joy together 
When they came from the happy little garden! 
Hey, for the sweet-pea! Hi, for the eat-pea! 
Hey, he, hi, ho, hum ! ' ' ' 



^^Was there really ever a poor man and 
little sick girl who had pease sent to them! 

49 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



asked little Prue, as the Chief Gardener fin- 
ished. 

^^Oh, I am sure there must have been! A 
great many of them." 

^'But the ones you sung about. Those really 
same ones— did they ever really live, or did you 
make it up about them?" 

^^I don't think my pease would be quite 
enough for a poor man who didn't have a cent 
of money," said Davy, after thinking about it. 

^^But my sweet-pease will be enough, only I 
want to know if there is really such a little girl, 
so I can send them. Is there. Papa?" 

^'Well, I am sure we can find such a little girl, 
if we try. And I know she'd be glad for some 
sweet-pease. And now here 's a little story that 
I really didn't make up, but read a long time ago. 

^^Once upon a time there were two friars—" 

"Wlmt are friars?" asked Prue. ^^Do they 
fry things?" 

^^Well, not exactly, though one of these did 
do some stewing, and the other, too, perhaps, 

50 



FEBRUARY 



though in a different way. A friar is a kind 
of priest, and these two had done something 
which the abbot, who is the head priest, did not 
like, so he punished them." 

*^What did they do?" asked Prue, who liked 
to know just what people could be punished for. 

^^I don't remember now. It's so long—" 
What do you 6' 'pose it was 1 ' ' 

^^Well, I really can't s'pose, but it may have 
been because they forgot their prayers. Abbots 
don't like friars to forget their prayers—" 

^^If I should forget my prayers, I'd say 'em 
twice to make up." 

^^Oh, Prue!" said Davy, ''do let Papa go on 
with the story!" 

*^But I would. I'd say 'em sixty times!" 

^^Yes," said the Chief Gardener, friars have 
to do that, too, I believe; but these had to do 
something different. They had to wear pease 
in their shoes. " 

^^Had to wear pease ! In their shoes ! " 

^^Yes, pease, like those we planted, and they 

51 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



had to walk quite a long ways, and, of course, it 
wouldn't be pleasant to walk with those little 
hard things under your feet. 

^^Well, they started, and one of them went 
limping and stewing along, and making an awful 
fuss, because his feet hurt him so, but when he 
looked at the other he saw that instead of hob- 
bling and groaning as he was, he was walking 
along, as lively as could be, and seemed to be 
enjoying the fine morning, and was actually 
whistling. 

^Oh, dear!' said the one who was limping, 
^how is it you can walk along so spry, and feel 
so happy, with those dreadful pease in your 
shoes?' 

<Why,' said the other, 'before I started, I 
took the liberty to boil my pease!' " 

' ' But, Papa, ' ' began little Prue, ' ' I don 't see — " 
^'I do," said Davy, "ii made them soft, so 
they didn't hurt." 

''What kind of pease were they?" asked 
Prue. "Like Davy's or mine?" 

52 



FEBRUARY 



^^Well, I've never heard just what kind they 
were. There are a good many kinds of pease, 
and they seem to have come from a good many 
places. Besides the sweet-pease and garden- 




THE PEASE RUN UP STRAIGHT LADDERS 



53 



A LITTLE 



GARDEN 



C A L E N D A R 



pease, there are field-pease, used dry for cattle, 
and in England there is what is called a sea- 
pea, because it was first found growing on the 
shore of a place called Sussex, more than three 
hundred and fifty years ago, in a year of 
famine. There were many, many of them and 
they were in a place where even grass had not 
grown before that time. The people thought 
they must have been cast up by some ship- 
wrecked vessel, and they gathered them, for 
food, and so kept from going hungry and starv- 
ing to death. The garden-pea is almost the 
finest of vegetables, and there are many kinds 
—some large, some small, some very sweet, 
some that grow on tall vines and have to have 
stakes, and some that grow very short without 
stakes, and are called dwarfs. There are a good 
many kinds of sweet-pease, too, different sizes 
and colors, but I think all the different kinds of 
garden-pease and sweet-pease might have come 
from one kind of each, a very, very long time 
ago, and that takes me to another story which 

54 



FEBRUARY 



I will have to put off until next time. I have 
some books now to look over, and yon and Davy, 
Prue, can go for a run in the fresh air.'' 

Ill 

EVEN CLOVEK BELONGS TO THE PULSE FAMILY 

It was on the same evening that Prue and 
Davy asked for the other story. And of course 
the Chief Gardener had to tell it, for he had 
promised, and little Prue, especially, didn't like 
to put off anything that had been promised. 
So this is the story that the Chief Gardener 
told: 

^^The Pulse family is a very large one. I 
don 't know just where the first old great-grand- 
father Pulse ever did come from, but it is 
thought to be some place in Asia, a great country 
of the far East. It may be that the first Pulse 
lived in the Garden of Eden, though whether as 
a tree or a vine or a shrub, or only as a little 
plant, we can't tell now." 

55 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



think it's going to be a fairy story,'' said 
Prue, settling down to listen. '^Is it, Papa! 
A real, true fairy story ?" 

^^Well, perhaps it is a sort of a fairy story, 
and I '11 try to tell it just as truly as I can. Any- 
way, the story goes, that a long time after the 
Garden of Eden was ruined and the Pulse family 
started west, there were two cousins, and these 
two cousins were vines, though whether they 
were always vines, or only got to be vines so 
they could travel faster, I do not know. Some 
of their relations were trees then, and are now ; 
the locust tree out in the corner of the yard is 
one of them." 

Davy looked up, and was about to ask a ques- 
tion. The Chief Gardener went on. 

' ' The cousins I am talking about, being vines, 
traveled quite fast in the summer-time, but when 
it came winter, they lay down for a long nap, 
and only when spring came they roused up and 
traveled on. One of them was a very fine fel- 
low, with gay flowers that had a sweet smell, 

56 



FEBRUARY 



and people loved him for his beauty and fra- 
grance. The other brought only greenish-white 
flowers, not very showy, but some thought hun 
far more useful than his pretty cousin, for he 
gave the people food as he passed along. 

^^So they journeyed on, down by the way of 
the Black Sea, which you will know about when 
you are a little older, and still farther west until 
at last the pretty Pulse cousin and the plain 
but useful Pulse cousin had spread their families 
all over Europe, and were called P's, perhaps 
because the first letter of their family name be- 
gan with P. Then by and by it was spelled 
p-e-a, and they were called garden-pease and 
sweet-pease, and were planted everywhere, one 
for the lovely flowers, and the other for food. 
Now we have them side by side in your win- 
dows, just as they were when they first started 
on their travels, so very, very long ago.'' 

*^Did they really travel as you have told!" 
asked Davy, looking into the fire. 

*^Well, I have never been able to find anv 

57 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



printed history of their travels, so it may have 
been something like that." 

''They did, didn't they, Papa?" insisted little 
Prue, who always wanted to believe every word 
of every fairy story. ''They went hand in 
hand, just as Davy and I do when we go walk- 
ing, didn't they?" 

"And Davy is the garden-pea and you the 
sweet-pea, is that it? Well, they did come a 
long way— that is true— and they do belong to 
a very large family. Why, even the clover be- 
longs to the Pulse family, and the peanut, and 
the locust, and the laburnum, and there is one 
distant branch of the family that is so modest 
and sensitive that at the least touch its members 
shrink and hide, and these are called sensitive 
plants. ' ' 

"Aren't beans of the Pulse family, too?" 
asked Davy. 

"Why do you think so?" asked the Chief 
Gardener. 

"Well, I remember that the flowers are some- 

58 



FEBRUARY 



thing alike, and then they both have pods." 

^^And yon are right, Davy. Both the flowers 
are what is called butterfly-shaped, and pods of 
that kind are called legnmes. Whenever yon 
see a flower of that shape, or a pod of that kind, 




A MEMBER OF THE PULSE FAMILY 



no matter how small or how large, or whether 
they grow on a plant or a tree or a shrnb, yon 
will know yon have fonnd one of the Pnlse 
family and a relative of the pea. Yonr scarlet 

— A Little Garden Calendar 59 



A LITTLE GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



runners are about second cousins, I should 
think, and I have something to tell about them, 
too, but it is too late this evening." 

IV 

BEANS AND MOENING-GLORIES TWINE TO THE RIGHT 

^^My morning-glories are climbing! My 
morning-glories are climbing up the strings!'' 

^^And so are my scarlet runners! Two of 
them have gone twice around already, and one 
of them three times ! But oh, Papa, something 
has broken one of my stalks of corn, right off 
close to the ground!" 

It was two days after the strings had been 
put up, and Prue and Davy had tried very hard 
no to look at their garden during all that time. 
Then they just had to look, and found that the 
beans and morning-glories were really starting 
up the strings. But what could have happened 
to Davy's corn! 

The Chief Gardener hurried down to see. 

60 



FEBRUARY 



Then with an old knife he dug down into the 
pot a little, and up came, what do you suppose ? 
Why, a white, fat ugly worm— a cut-worm, the 
Chief Gardener called him. 

' ' They are a great enemy to young corn, ' ' he 
said, especially in cool weather. Sometimes 
almost whole fields have to be replanted. Black- 
birds will kill them, but many times the farmer 
thinks the blackbird is pulling up his corn, and 
drives him away with a gun, when the blackbird 
is only trying to help the farmer." 

^ ' Do you suppose there are any more ? ' ' asked 
Davy anxiously. 

The Chief Gardener dug carefully around 
the other stalk, until the white roots began to 
show. 

^^No, I think your other stalk is safe,'' he 
said, ^^at least from cut-worms.'' 

Grown-up Prue came to see the gardens. Yes, 
the vines were really making a nice start, as well 
as the other things. One of Davy's pease had 
sent out some tiny tendrils that were reaching 

6t 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



toward the slender twig-branches, but thought- 
ful DsiYj was looking first at his beans, then at 
Prue 's morning-glories. 

^^They all go around the strings just alike,'' 
he said at last ; ^ ^ all the same way. Why don 't 
some go the other way f 

^^You ask such hard questions, Da^^^," the 
Chief Gardener answered. ^^I ha^e never 
known anvbodv to tell whv all the beans and 
morning-glories twine to the right, any more 
than whv all the honevsuckles twine to the 
left." The Chief Gardener turned to the little 
woman beside him. ^ ' There must be some rea- 
son, of course ; some law of harmony and attrac- 
tion. I suppose it would be quite simple to us 
if we knew. Why, where did Da\^ go!" 

Davy came in, just then, with his hat and coat 
on. 

*^I'm going to look at the honeysuckles," he 
said, ^ ' those out on the porch. " 

The others put on wraps, too, and went with 
him.. It was crisp and bright out there, and 

62 



F E B R U A R Y 



dry leaves still clinging to the vines whispered 
and gossiped together in the wintry breeze. 

^^They do!" said Davy, ^^they every one turn 
the other way— every single one ! How do yon 
suppose they can tell which way to start— which 
is right, and which is left ? ' ' 

The Chief Gardener shook his head. 
Perhaps a story might explain it," he said. 

Stories have to explain a good many things 
until we find better ways. ' ' 

So then they went inside to see if a story would 
really tell why the morning-glory and scarlet 
runner always twined to the right, and why 
the honeysuckle always twined to the left. And 
this was the Chief Gardener's story: 

V 

THE HONEYSUCKLE TWINES ALWAYS TO THE LEFT 

'^AwAY back in the days that came after 
Eden, the time I told you of, when the garden 
was given up to weeds and the plants went 

6s 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



wandering out through the world, a certain 
morning-glory and climbing-bean were good 
friends, and were often found together— twining 
up the same little tree or trellis, and very hsupipj. 
Of course they were not called morning-glory 
and bean then, and the honeysuckle that grew 
near was not called honeysuckle either, though 
it had just the same sweet flowers, and the hum- 
ming-birds came to suckle honey from them, 
just as they do now, in summer-time. I don't 
know what the old names were. It has been so 
long since then, I suppose they are all forgotten. 

^^Now the honeysuckle was very proud of its 
sweet flowers, that scented all the air around 
and drew the beautiful humming-birds, while 
the morning-glory and bean had only very pale 
little flowers that the humming-birds did not 
care for at all. 

^^And the honeysuckle used to laugh at them, 
and tell them how plain and useless they were. 
How they lived only a little while in summer, 
and withered when the frost came, while it only 

64 



FEBRUARY 



shed its leaves, and stood strong and sturdy 
against the wind and cold of winter, ready to 




THE MORNING-GLORY TWINES TO THE RIGHT 



grow larger and more useful each spring. And 
this, of course, made the two friends feel very 

65 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



sorry, and wish they could be beautiful and use- 
ful, too. 

^^Now, one day in early spring, the sun, who 
makes the plants grow and gives the colors to 
the flowers, heard the honeysuckle, which was 
putting out green leaves on its strong vines, 
laughing at the bean and morning-glory, that 
were just peeping from the earth. 

^^And the sun said, ^This is too bad. It is not 
fair for one who has so much to make fun of 
those who have so little. I must give them 
more.^ 

^^So, lo and behold, when the morning-glory 
vine began to bloom, instead of having pale little 
flowers, they were a beautiful white and blue 
and purple and rose color, and when the bean 
blossomed, it had a fine scarlet flower, and both 
were more beautiful than the honeysuckle, 
though the honeysuckle still had its sweet per- 
fume, and its honey for the humming-birds." 

^'But what about the twining?" asked Davy. 
**That is what you started to tell." 

66 



FEBRUARY 



"Why, yes, of course. I forgot that. Well, 
when the snn came to look at them he said, first 
to the honeysnclde, ^Because you have been so 
proud, you must follow me,' and to the bean and 
morning-glory, ^Because you have been meek, 
you shall turn always to meet me,' and since 
that day, the honeysuckle has turned always to 
the left, following the sun, while the bean and 
the morning-glory have twined always to the 
right, to meet it on every turn." 

The Chief Gardener paused, seeing that Davy 
was making circles in the air with his finger— 
first circles to the right, then more circles to the 
left. Then the circles got slower and slower, 
showing that he was thinking very hard. 

That's right," he said at last. ^^If they 
turned to the right, they would meet the sun 
every time around, and if they turned to the 
left they would be following it." 

The Chief Gardener was glad he had told his 
story right. 

^^And then, by and by," he said, suppose 

67 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



people must have given tliem their names— the 
honeysuckle 's because of the humming-birds 
that came to suckle the flowers, and the morn- 
ing-glory 's because it made each morning bright 
witli its beautiful flowers, while the bean 
they called the scarlet runner, and when 
they found that its pods held good food, they 
planted it both for its flowers and its usefulness, 
and valued it very highly, indeed. Just where 
all this happened I do not know. The honey- 
suckle and morning-glory now grow wild, both 
in Europe and the United States, and the scarlet 
runner is said to have been found wild in these 
countries, too, though I have never seen it except 
in gardens. ' ' 

^^Papa," asked little Prue, haven't my 
morning-glories any useful relations, like my 
sweet-pease. ' ' 

< ' Why, yes, of course, let me see. The sweet 
potato belongs to that family. It is really 
about a first cousin, and useful drugs are made 
from the juice and root of a wild morning- 

68 



FEBRUARY 



glory. There are hardly any families that do 
not have both useful and ornamental members, 
and most of them, I am sorry to say, have 
troublesome ones, too, which we call weeds. But 
I must run away now, and all that will have to 
wait until another time." 



6q 



MARCH 



MARCH 



I 



STILL, IT WAS REALLY A RADISH 

ND SO the month of February passed. 



i \ Once the vines had started up the strings, 
they seemed to grow faster— ahuost as if 
they were running races, while the pease 
reached out and clung to the little twigs, and 
stood up straight and trim, like soldiers. The 
pansies and nasturtiums, too, and the lettuce 
and radishes all sent out more and more leaves, 
and began to hide the little pods. Davy was 
wild to pull up just one radish to see if it wasn't 
big enough to eat, but on the first day of March, 
when the Chief Gardener told him that he might 
do so, he was grieved to find only a pale little 
root, just a bit larger and a trifle pinker at the 




73 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



top, instead of the fat, round vegetable he had 
expected. 

Still, it was really a radish, Davy said, and 
he cut the thickest part in two and gave half to 
little Prne, who brought out her little dishes and 
set her table that Santa Claus left under the 
Christmas Tree. Then she put her piece on 
one little plate, and Davy's piece on another, 
and picked one tiny pansy leaf and one from 
the nasturtiums to make bouquets. And Davy 
picked a lettuce leaf— a very small lettuce leaf 
—for a salad, so that when their little table was 
all spread and ready, with some very small 
slices of bread, and some cookies— some quite 
large cookies— and some animal crackers, with 
milk for tea, it really looked quite fresh and 
pretty and made you hungry just to look at it. 

And, oh, yes, I forgot to say that there was 
some salt, the least little bit, in two of the 
tiniest salt dishes, and when they sat down at 
last to the very first meal out of their garden, 
all on the first day of March, when no other gar- 

74 



M ARCH 



dens around about had been planted yet, they 
dipped the tiny bits of radish into the tiny salt 
dishes, and nibbled it^ just a wee bit at a time 




THE NASTURTIUMS BEGAN TO HIDE THE LITTLE POT 



to make it last, and last, ever so long. And 
they said it tasted real radishy, and that the 
lettuce leaf, with one drop of vinegar and a 

6—^ Little Garden Calendar 75 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



speck of salt, was just fine. And little Prue 
held her doll and made her taste, too, and then 
the Chief Gardener and grown-np Prue must 
each have a tiny, tiny bite. 

And so, of course, Dayy got to be really quite 
proud of his first radish, and said that after all 
it wasn't so bad for the first one, and that it was 
almost as big as a slate-pencil, in the thickest 
part. Pretty soon they might have a radish 
that would be big enough for each one to have 
quite a piece, and they would serve it on a whole 
leaf of salad. He felt sure that on his birth- 
day, which would be on the tenth, they might 
really have something very nice. 

Then Prue was very quiet for a minute, 
thinking. By and by she asked : 

^^And do you think I will have flowers for 
Davy's birthday? Dryj can just pick his let- 
tuce and radishes any time. My 'sturtiums 
and pansies are as big as his things, but I have 
to wait for them to bloom." 

^'Why, that's so, Prue." The Chief Gar- 

76 



MARCH 



dener went over to her pansies and looked at 
them very closely, but if he saw anything he did 
not speak of it. ^^Oh, well/' he said, "ii you 
don't have flowers for Davy's birthday, maybe 
you will for mine. It comes in March, too, you 
know. And then it's ten days yet till Davy's, 
and you never can tell what will happen in ten 
days. ' ' 

Alas, this was too true. It got quite warm 
during the second week of March, and the fire 
in the furnace was allowed to get low. Then 
one night it suddenly turned cold— as cold as 
January. 

^ ' Oh, what makes some of my pea leaves look 
so dark?" asked Davy, as they stopped in the 
icy sitting-room for a moment, before hurrying 
through to the warm dining-room, where a big 
open fire was blazing. 

The Chief Gardener shook his head, rather 
solemnly. 

*'I'm afraid they are bitten a little by Jack 
Frost, ' ' he said. 

77 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



*^0h, mine are all dark, too," whispered 
Prue, sorrowfully. ^^I am going to take them 
right out to the dining-room fire, and warm 
them. ' ' 

^^ And that would be the very worst thing you 
could do, ' ' said the Chief Gardener. ^ ' Let them 
stay right where they are, and we will heat the 
room slowly by opening the register just the 
least bit at a time, and draw the shades to keep 
out the sun. Perhaps if we do that the frost 
will come out so gently that the plants will not 
be killed. If you should warm them quickly 
they would be very apt to die, or at least to be 
badly injured. " 

So they did as the Chief Gardener said, and 
kept the sitting-room quite cool all day. Then 
by another day the pease and all the others 
looked about as well as ever, only a few of the 
tenderest leaves withered up and dropped off 
because Jack Frost had breathed harder on 
these than on the others. As for the radishes 
and lettuce and pansies, they hadn't minded it 

78 



MARCH 



the least bit, for they can stand a good deal of 
cold, and the corn and sunflower and nasturtiums 
didn't lose any leaves, so, perhaps, they didn't 
care for a touch of frost either. 

II 

THE SUN SWINGS LIKE A GREAT PENDULUM 

And now with each day there was brighter 
sunshine that came earlier and stayed longer. 
From a high east window they saw the sun rise 
each morning, when it was bright weather, and 
when they happened to be awake in time, and 
they saw how the big red ball crept farther and 
farther to the north, along the far fringe of 
trees, beyond all the houses which they could 
see. 

^^It rose away down beyond that little white 
house on Christmas morning," said Davy, who 
was always up early. ^^I remember very well. 
Now it's got past the tall pine by the red barn. 
How much farther will it go?" 

79 



A LITTLE 



GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



The Chief Gardener pointed to a dim pencil- 
mark on the window-sill. 

' ' That was the angle of the shadow, ' ' he said, 
^^on the twenty -first of June, and points to just 
where the sun will rise on the longest day of the 
year. You will have to be up very early to see 
it on that day." He pointed to another faint 
line. ^^That," he said, ^^was the angle on the 
twenty-first of December, the shortest day. The 
sun swings like a great pendulum from one 
point to the other and gives us winter and sum- 
mer, and all the seasons between. Half-way 
between these marks is due east, and there the 
sun will rise on the twenty-first of March, which 
is the first day of spring. ' ' 

*'Do you think our garden things are looking 
at it, and wishing it would hurry and get farther 
toward the June mark," said little Prue. 

^^I think they are," the Chief Gardener an- 
swered. ' ' They don't have eyes, as we have, but 
they have a way of seeing the sun, and of know- 
ing just where it is, for most of them turn 

80 



MARCH 



toward it as they grow, and some of them follow 
it all the way across the sky, from morning 
nntil night, and then turn back and wait for it to 
rise again. Yonr sunflower would do that, 
Prue, if it were out under the open sky. ' ' 

^^Oh, it does now. I mean it looks toward 




THE VERY SMALL LETTUCE LEAVES 



the sun in the morning, with its top leaves, and 
keeps them turned toward it as far as it can." 

^ ^ So you have noticed that, have you ? Well, 
I'm glad, for I have read in books— books 
written by very wise men— that the sun- 
flower did not really do this, but that it was just 

8i 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



an old fable. I think those wise men, perhaps, 
never saw the wild western sunflowers, but only 
the big tame ones that have heavy, coarse stems 
and are so big and clumsy and fat that they 
couldn't well turn, even if they wanted to. I 
have seen whole fields of wild sunflowers— little 
ones like yours, and long before they were in 
bloom— with every stem bent toward the sun- 
rise, when there was not a breath of wind blow- 
ing ; and I have seen the same flowers straighten 
their little stems as the sun rose higher, and then 
bend them again to the west in the evening ; and 
the little bend would be so tight and firm that 
you could hardly straighten the stalk without 
breaking it. Very wise men make mistakes 
sometimes, mistakes that even a little girl would 
not make, just because they have not happened 
to see something which a little girl with sharp 
eyes has seen and thought about. It is a wonder- 
ful and beautiful sight on the prairies of the 
West to see miles of wild sunflowers in full 
bloom. They are like a great sea of gold, and in 

82 



M A R C H 



the early morning, when the air is still, every 
bloom is faced toward the sunrise, as bright and 
fresh and faithful as the sun itself. ' ' 

^^I should think there would be a story about 
the sunflower, ' ' said Davy, half speaking to him- 
self. 

' ' Oh, there have been many stories about it, 
Davy. After breakfast I will try and remem- 
ber the one I like best." 

So then they hurried down to the dining- 
room, pausing just long enough to see that the 
garden was all safe, and to notice that the upper 
leaves of Prue's sunflower were really faced so 
far to the sun that there was a sharp little crook 
in the stem, then out to the big dining-room 
fire, for the fragrant breakfast that was waiting, 
and back to the library fire for the story that 
was to be told. 



83 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



III 

LONG BEFORE THERE WERE ANY RAILROADS AND 

CITIES 

*^Once upon a time—" 

^'Oli," said Prue, ^^once upon a time— I just 
love ^once upon a time.' " 

'^Yes/' nodded Davy, solemnly, ^^and once 
upon a time there was a little girl who couldn't 
keep still so that her Papa could tell a story. ' ' 

Prue snuggled down, and the Chief Gardener 
began all over. 

^^Once upon a time, long before there were 
any railroads, and cities such as ours, long be- 
fore Columbus ever sailed over the ocean to a 
new world— when all this great wide country, 
as you know, was held by Indians, who hunted 
and fished, and made war sometimes, when they 
had disputes— there lived away in the far West 
two very friendly tribes. Their lands joined 
and they hunted together, and when one tribe 

84 



MARCH 



was at war the other joined in and helped to 
fight the enemy. So they became almost as one 
tribe and their children grew up together. 

^^Now, in one tribe there was a little Indian 
boy, a chief's son, who was very fond of a little 
Indian girl of the other tribe. Their mothers 
had always been great friends, and often for a 
whole day at a time the little Indian boy and 
girl played together, and as they grew up they 
cared for each other more and more, and the 
Indian boy, Ahlogah, said that when he was 
older and a chief he wonld make the little Indian 
girl, Laida, his wife. 

^^Bnt it happened that in Laida 's tribe there 
was also a chief's son, a jealous-hearted and 
cruel boy that Laida did not like. But this boy 
cared for Laida, and like Ahlogah made up his 
mind that some day she should be his wife. 

* ^ So they all grew up, and Ahlogah and Laida 
loved each other more dearly every day, and 
Kapoka, the other youth, grew more jealous and 
more cruel-hearted. And when one day his 

85 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



father died, and he became chief of his tribe, he 
said that if she did not give up Ahlogah, he 
would make war on Ahlogah 's tribe. 

^'So then Ahlogah and Laida met one even- 
ing just before sunset to say good-by for the last 
time. Their tribes had never been at war, and 
they were willing to part forever to keep 
Kapoka from making a war now. Laida had 
not promised to marry Kapoka, she had only 
promised not to see Ahlogah again. And now 
they parted, just as the sun was going down, 
and they both turned to see it for the last time 
side by side. And then Ahlogah said: 

^To-morrow just at sunrise go to the high 
rocks above the river and look to the east. And 
where the river passes through our lands, I will 
go also to see some high rocks, and I will look 
to the east, too, when the sun rises, and I will 
know that though we are apart, we are watching 
the sun rise together, and it will be always our 
message of love to each other as it travels across 
the sky.' 

86 



MARCH 



^^So Laida went back to her tribe and 
Ahlogah to his, and every morning they watched 
from their high rocks above the river, and held 
out their arms to the rising sun, as a message it 
should bear between them. 

^^And Kapoka found out that Laida went 
every morning to the high rocks, and held out 
her arms to the sun. And he found that 
Ahlogah also- went every morning to the high 
rocks farther up the river. Then Kapoka knew 
that Laida would never be his wife as long as 
Ahlogah was alive. And one morning very 
early Kapoka left his wigwam and crept across 
to the lands of the other tribes, and to the high 
rocks where Ahlogah stood waiting for the sun- 
rise. And just as the sun rose, and Kapoka 
knew that AJilogah would not hear him, he 
slipped up behind Ahlogah, and gave him a 
great push that sent him over into the swift 
river, hundreds of feet below. 

^^And the swift river caught him and tossed 
him and whirled him about, and finally carried 

87 



A LITTLE 



GARDEN CALENDAR 



him down past the high rocks wliere Laida was 
sending her message to the sun. And Laida 
looked down and saw him coming. She saw 
his chieftain's dress and plumes tossed and 
whirled by the water. She knew it was Ahlo- 
gall, and she waited for him. Then, when he 
just was below the high rocks where she stood, 
she gave a great cry, ' Ahlogah ! ' and she was in 
the whirling, tossing water beside him. 

' ' Then the tribes searched together, and they 
found Ahlogah and Laida far below, cast up 
on a place of white pebbles, side by side. And 
they buried them, side by side, and both the 
tribes mourned. But when the spring came 
there grew upon their graves two strange flow- 
ers with bright, beautiful faces that turned each 
morning to the sunrise. And these they named 
Ahlogah and Laida, but in another year there 
were more of them, so they called them sun- 
flowers, and after that the land in September, 
the month when they had died, was like gold 
with the beautiful flowers of the sun. ' ' 

88 



M ARCH 



**Biit what became of the wicked Kapoka? 
What did they do with him?" asked Prue, 
anxiously. 

^^They never saw him again. I suppose he 
was ashamed to come back, and by and by his 
brother, who was good and noble, ruled the 
tribe, and they dwelt in peace for many genera- 
tions. ' ^ 

*^Do sunflowers belong to a family now?" 
asked Davy. 

^^Oh, yes, to the verj^ largest of all families— 
a family that spreads all over the world, and the 
sunflower has been found to be so perfect in 
form that the family is sometimes called the 
Sunflower Family. Its true name is the Com- 
posite Family, which means flowers with thick, 
bunchy centers, formed of a lot of very tiny 
little flowers, with a rim of petals around the 
whole— rays they are called— making it into one 
big flower." 

^^The black-eyed Susans must belong to that 
family, too," said Davy. 

89 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



^^They do, and the daisy, and the marigold, 
and the zinnia, and the aster, and your lettuce, 
too, Daw, and many, many more. Whenever 
you see a flower with a round bunchy center and 
a rim of petals, like a sunflower— no matter 
what color or how small it is— you will know it 
belongs to the Composite Family. I suppose 
there are more of this family in America than 
in any other country, but the sunflower is the 
finest of them all, and the most generally useful. 
Its seeds are full of fine oil, and are excellent 
food for cattle and poultry. The Indians some- 
times use them for bread. The flowers them- 
selves are full of honey, the leaves, too, are good 
for cattle, and the stalks make fine fuel. In 
many places and many countries the sunflowers 
are cultivated and valued highly. Of course, 
there are other useful members, and your lettuce 
is one of the finest salads in the world. 



QO 



MARCH 



IV 

DID YOU EVER SEE THE LITTLE MAN IN THE PANSY? 

March was really an exciting month in the 
little window gardens. With longer and brighter 
suns, everything grew faster, until the windows 
began to look full and green, and the children 
often went outside to look in, and were very 
proud, indeed, of the pretty show of vines and 
leaves beyond the glass. 

The race of vines became very close. Davy 
had one bean and Prue one morning-glory which 
kept ahead of the others, and grew about the 
same each day. They grew so fast that Davy 
thought if he would only watch very closely he 
would be able to see them grow a little, but 
watch as he would, he never could catch the 
little vine turning or sending out a new leaf. It 
was like the short hand of the clock. It went 
twice around each day, but nobody could see it 
move. 

7— A Little Garden Calendar QI 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



The corn and the sunflower were having a 
race, too, and the sunflower was a little ahead, 
though Davy's corn was a good deal taller when 
he lifted the points of the leaves. 

^^I don't think that is fair," said Prue, and 
the Chief Gardener was called to decide. 

^^No, " he said, ''the corn must be measured 
from where the leaves turn over, until it sends 
up its tassel, or bloom. Then it may be mea- 
sured to the top of that. And that may be sooner 
than you think, too," he added, as he looked 
down into the healthy-looking green stalk that 
was fully two feet high. *^And just see those 
vines ; why they are more than half-way up the 
casings already!" 

It was the day before Davy's birthday, and 
Prue was looking anxiously at her pansies. All 
at once she gave a joyous cry. 

' ' Oh, Papa, a bud ! Oh, it truly is, a real sure 
enough bud ! " 

The Chief Gardener looked with care. 

' 'Yes, ' ' he said, "it is really a bud, and quite 

92 



MARCH 



a large one, too. It begins to show the color. 
It's going to be a purple one, I believe." 
Prne was fairly wild with excitement. 




daw's pot of radishes 



'^Oh, may I pick it to-morrow for Davy's 
birthday?" she asked. 

^^I don't believe I would, Prue. It won't be 
open for a week or more, perhaps. I would 
wait until it opens." 

93 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



So Davy's birthday came and passed without 
flowers from their garden, but they did have 
radishes, two of them, and these were cut in two 
and divided around so that each had quite a nice 
taste, and a leaf of salad, too. The radishes 
•were nearly as big as marbles, little marbles, of 
course, and very red and beautiful, and Prue 
put her pansy-pot on the table, and showed the 
bud, with its purple tip, every time Davy made 
any mention of his radishes or his lettuce, and 
with a big cake and other good things they had 
a very happy time indeed. 

But now things began to happen in real ear- 
nest. The pansy bloomed— a big velvety, purple 
bloom, and then there was a yellow bud and a 
yellow bloom with a purple spot in the center. 
Little Prue was simply too happy to keep still, 
and danced in front of her garden almost from 
morning until night. 

Then suddenly they found a bud on the bean 
vines, and then on the morning-glories, and 
then there were blooms— pink and purple 

94 



M ARCH 



blooms on the morning-glories, and scarlet and 
white ones on the beans. Then Davj^'s corn 
sent out a plume at the top, a wonderful tassel, 
and when Davj measured to the top of it he 
found that it was over three feet high. 

^^My birthday will be a regular feast of flow- 
ers,'' said the Chief Gardener, and really there 
was good reason for saying so, for the window 
casings were white, scarlet, pink, and purple, 
and the tasseling corn and the broad green 
leaves of the sunflower were fair and lovely. 
And Prue's pansy-pot was again on the table, 
and when the dinner was over, the Chief Gar- 
dener drew it toward him, and picking one of 
the purple blooms that was nearly ready to fall, 
said: 

^^Did you ever see the little man in the 
pansy?" 

'^No, oh, no," said Prue and Davy together. 
^^Show him to us. Papa." 

So then the Chief Gardener pulled off care- 
fully all the petals of the flower, and there, sure 

95 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



enough, sat a little round-bodied man, in a won- 
derful green chair, made of the outer part, or 
calyx, of the flower. His head was light green, 
his coat pale yellow, and he wore a rich, brown 
collar. J ust below him was a round green sack 
or tube, filled with water, and when the Chief 
Gardener slitted it down, why there, truly, were 
two little legs and feet that had been in the little 
vessel. The children were delighted. 

^^Oh, tell us about him!" they said. '^A¥ho 
is he?" 

^ ' He was a king, ' ' said the Chief Gardener, ' ' a 
poor, feeble king, who always sat on a green 
throne, with his feet in a tub of water. And 
his wife and daughters, all very splendidly 
dressed, used to perch themselves around him 
on the throne and ask for more money to spend 
on their fine clothes, and they were often cruel 
to him because he wouldn't give it to them, 
crowding him and almost smothering him with 
their velvet dresses. 

'*Sp one day the fairies heard of it, and came 

96 



M ARCH 



to see. And they took pity on the poor king, 
and the next time the wife and daughters were 




DAVY'S CORN SENT OUT A PLUME AT THE TOP " 

crowding him on his throne they changed the 

97 



A LITTLE GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



king and his throne and all the others, with their 
fine dresses, into a flower. And the flower was 
the pansy. The velvet petals are the wife and 
daughters. The calyx is the green throne, and 
this little man is the poor, sick king with his 
feet and legs still in the little tub of water, 
though he can never be worried and scolded 
again. ' ' 

^^I know that story is true," said little Prue, 
^^for there is the very little man, himself, and 
oh, see, you can take his coat off, and there is a 
little green body inside." 

Sure enough, it was as Prue had said, and the 
Chief Gardener explained. ^^That little body 
becomes a pod to hold the seeds by and by. The 
little coat helps to make the seed, too. I won't 
tell you all the names of these things now, for 
you could not remember so much. Only try to 
remember that the green throne is called the 
calyx, and each little piece of it is a sepal, while 
the beautiful wife and daughters are called 
petals, and when taken together are called a 

98 



MARCH 



corolla, and that this is true of every complete 
flower. ' ' 

And so March, too, slipped away. And on 
one day near the very end of the month, when 
it had been warm and bright for nearly a week, 
the Chief Gardener went out into his garden 
and turned over some of the earth which was 
getting dry. Davy said that it smelled all new 
and springy, and reminded him of kite-time. 
And then the Chief Gardener made two little 
beds of his own, and in one he sowed some lettuce, 
and in the other some radish seed, because these 
were the things most likely to grow from an 
early planting. Davy and Prue watched and 
helped, and were very anxious to have little 
beds of their own, but the Chief Gardener told 
them that they would better wait at least another 
month before they did any outside gardening. 
Their window gardens were just coming to their 
best time, he said, and planting outside so early 
was always risky. 

And that night when the wind went to the 

^ LofC, 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



northeast, and a cold rain set in, that turned to 
snow before morning, and made the ground all 
white and glassy like December, they were very 
glad they had not made any beds, and were 
sorry for the Chief Gardener's little beds of 
vegetables, outside beneath the cold, cold snow. 



lOO 



APRIL 



APEIL 



I 



THE YELLOW DUST IS A FOOD FOR THE SEED 

PRIL showers began early. The sun 



r\ shone out brightly on the morning of the 
first day, but by breakfast time the rain 
was pattering down, and all the rest of the day 
there were showers, one after another, that 
streamed down the garden windows and made 
a little river of the path outside. Davy said he 
had never seen it rain so much in one day, and 
Prue said it was too bad. The Chief Gardener 
said it was an April fool. 

But there was reason to be happy, after all. 
Whether it was the shower outside; or the sun 
that was trying to shine; or just because it was 




A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



April, Prue and Davy did not know, but Prne 
all at once found a bud on her sunflowers and 
Davy about the same time discovered a tiny 
brown silky bunch on his corn, the beginning of 
the ear. 

Then they forgot all about the rain, or at least 
they did not care so much, and got their books 
and their little table and sat down by their gar- 
den, which was now a real garden, of real 
flowers and vegetables, and read some stories 
about other little people, and looked at the 
pictures and talked about what they would do 
when warm weather came and they had a still 
bigger garden outside. 

And that night, when the Chief Gardener 
came home, he had to look at the corn and the 
sunflower the first thing, and say, ^^Well, well," 
every time Prue told him how she had first seen 
the bud, which was a good many times, and he 
had to explain to Dryj all about the corn silk, 
and the little ear that was still behind the rough 
green leaf, and how the dust, or pollen, drop- 

104 



APRIL 



ping down from the tassel above helped to make 
the corn swell and grow on the ear. 

^^It is so in every flower, the yellow dust is a 
food for the seed. In most plants the seed-pod 
and the food-dust or pollen are all in one 
flower, but with the corn they are separate, 
as you see. Did you ever notice, Davy, how 
much a cornstalk looks like an Indian, with 
plumes, and its ear, like a quiver for holding- 
arrows ' ' 

^^Oh, is that why people sometimes call it 
Indian corn!" asked Davy. 

^^No, that is not the reason. At least, there 
is a better one which I will tell you when we have 
had our dinner.'' 

So by and by, when dinner was over, and 
Prue had two servings of pudding because she 
didn't care for chocolate cake— one very little 
serving, of course, the Chief Gardener and 
Davy, and big Prue and little Prue all went into 
the library, and the Chief Gardener told the 
story of 

105 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



II 

THE COMING OF THE CORN 

^^You remember," said the Chief Gardener, 
'^how I told you about the first sunflowers—'' 

^^Yes," put in Prue, about that wicked 
Kapoka, who pushed poor Alilogah from the 
high rocks. Oh, I hope he is not in the corn 
story, too." 

*^No, he isn't in the corn story, but it was, 
perhaps, about that time that the corn came to 
the American Indian tribes, for the corn was 
first found in America, and it is a true Indian 
plant like the sunflower. Like the sunflower, 
too, it came once upon a time. 

**Well, then, once upon a time, there was a 
year of famine. The winter had been very 
cold, and almost all the wild game, upon which 
the Indians then lived, had either died or gone 
out of the country. The fish, too, seemed scarce 
and hard to catch, and the wild fruit had been 
winter-killed. There was little to eat during the 

io6 



APRIL 



winter, and even when spring came it was not 
much better, though by and by some of the game 
came back and there were more fish in the 
streams. 

Still it was very hard to get enough food, 
and every bird and animal was killed wherever 
found, and brought to the camps to be eaten. 

^^But one day there flew down very close to 
one of the very large camps a big bird, such 
as no one of the tribe had ever seen before. It 
was not a hawk, nor an eagle, for it was a golden 
yellow, and it seemed to have come a very long 
way. It sat quite still, and its wings drooped, 
and it did not seem frightened when the won- 
dering and hungry Indians came nearer to look 
at it. 

^^Then one or two Indians began stringing 
their bows to shoot the great bird for food. But 
others said, ^No, let us not harm the stranger. 
He has come from a far country. And see, the 
color is golden, like the sun. Perhaps, the sun 
has sent a messenger, as a good omen. ' 

H—A Little Garden Calendar I07 



A LIT T L E GARDEN GALE N D A R 



^'So they did not kill the bird, but even 
brought it food, little as they had, and the bird 
ate and rested through the day. Then just at 
evening he lifted his great wings and flew away 
into the sunset, and was seen no more. 

^^But when a week had gone by, there came 
up where the bird had rested a strange new 
plant which grew very fast in the warm sun and 
shower and sent out long graceful leaves, and 
at last a plume at the top like that of an Indian 
chief, and from beliind the graceful drooping 
leaves, tufts of silk that became ears, and were 
like Indian quivers. And when the summer 
was past, the tribe gathered these ears, and 
pulled away tlie husk, and lo, there were the 
rows of ripened corn, golden like the great 
bird. 

^*Then the tribes from far and near were 
called together, and there was great rejoicing 
and thanks for this new gift, brought to them 
by the wonderful bird of the sun. And to each 
chief was given a few of the grains for planting, 

io8 



A r in I 



thai IIh' next, ycnr IJic Irilx'S 'Avowwd Jihoiit 
W6Y0 w;iicliin^- ;ui(l Icndin*^^ IIk^ Inll ^r(M*n slnlks 
llial, were to /j;iv(* tlH^rn ;il)Nn(l;uice of s<mmJ 
nt^airist nriotlicr' r;uriiri(*. 

^'AikI lli;it is the legend oi' tlic eorn. Al'tcir 
tlie tfiird year- llicrc was srcd for all, and eorn 
beeairic the hcst and sincst food lOf all tin* hi 
diari tr'ilx'S. When the whit<* iricn carne, tin^y 
at(^ it, too, and l)y cultivation rriad(^ new kinds 
and colors. Now wc have the sweet or su^rar* 
corn, like Davy's, arid we have |>o|> corn, too, 
which is o»ily a dwarf corn with a liard, flinty 
sfiell wliicli |)0|)S o|)eri with h(tat.'' 

^M)o they raise corn in any ot[i(ir country 
except America r' asked l)avy. 

^*'01i, yes, there is a ^rcat deal raised in other 
countries now, and I l)eliev(^ tlx^y claim to liav(^ 
found some grains of it in a v(^ry old toml) in 
Greece, and a [)ictiire of it in a v(^ry oh] l)Ook 
in (Jliina, so, [)(^rlia.f)S, it was from sorrn^ f)hice 
in the far' l^last tliat tli(; ^niat })ird of tlie Indians 
came with 1 he seed. ' ' 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



''And does it belong to a family, too?" asked 
little Prue. 

''It is claimed by the grass family, and, of 
course, it is something like big grass. Wheat 
and oats and, indeed, all the grains, belong to 
that wonderful family, too. Then there is 
broom-corn, useful for making brooms, while 
sugar-cane, which is also a grass, gives us our 
best sugar and molasses, but corn not only gives 
us the ears for food, but the leaves are used for 
cattle, and the husks for making cushions and 
mattresses, and for packing fruits. Syrup also 
is made from the young stalks, and the dry 
stalks are used for thatching, stable-bedding and 
fuel. In fact, every part of the corn is valuable, 
and I think we might call it the king, or, per- 
haps, being an Indian, the chief of the tribe of 
Grasses. ' ' 

"I know the best of all the things that comes 
from it, ' ' said little Prue. 
"mat?'' asked Bslyj. 
"Pop-corn balls,'' said Prue. 

1 10 



APRIL 



m 

CROSS BY NAME AND CROSS BY NATURE 

What wonderful things happened to the lit- 
tle window-garden in April! The nasturtium 
bloomed early in the month— first a red one 
then a yellow one, then a lot of red and yellow 
ones. They were so beautiful that almost every 
meal the little pot stood on the table, and some- 
times the pansy-pot, too. 

And then the sweet-pease bloomed, beautiful 
pink and white and purple blooms that were so 
sweet you could smell them as soon as you came 
into the room. Davy's garden-pease had 
bloomed even sooner, and had little pods on 
them by April. Before many days the tiny 
pease inside began to swell, and you could see 
every one quite plainly when you turned the pod 
flat side to the light. As for the beans and 
morning-glories, they had bloomed and bloomed, 
and already had seed-pods hanging all the way 

III 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



up the vines that now reached to the top of the 
casings and looped down and joined in a long 
festoon which hung between. 

And how proud the children were of their two 
beautiful windows. And how happy they were 
when passers-by stopped to look in, and per- 
haps wondered about the gardens, and maybe 
thought that the rosy-cheeked boy and girl look- 
ing out between the blossoms and leaves and 
"\dnes were the brightest and best flowers that 
bloomed there. 

And Da\^^'s corn sent out another ear, a little 
one, and both ears grew and the pollen from 
above sifted down, and Davy knew that inside 
the green husks the sweet kernels were forming. 

^^When can we eat it!" he asked almost everv 

*/ 

day. Don't you think it's about big enough 
now!" 

' ' When the silk turns brown, ' ' said the Chief 
Gardener. ^^That is about the best rule. I 
think you'll have pease and beans, too, pretty 
soon, so you can have quite a feast." 

112 



APRIL 




i 6 



Just in time for my birthday," said big 
Prue, who had been an April baby a long time 

ago. 

113 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



^^Tt's ever so long till my birthday," said lit- 
tle Prue, rather sadly. '^I don't think we'll 
have anything left by August." 

^^Oh, but I'll have a fine garden outside by 
then, ' ' said the Chief Gardener, ' ' and you will, 
too. I'll have radishes and lettuce now before 
you know it;" for in spite of the cold snow and 
freeze, the Chief Gardener's first planting had 
sprouted fairlj^ well, and was rapidly filling his 
first two little beds. 

^^Papa, you haven't told us a word about my 
nasturtiums yet, and they're so lovely. Not a 
single story or anything, nor about their family 
relations, or where they came from— not a 
thing. ' ' 

^^Well, that's so," said the Chief Gardener, 
perhaps because I wanted to make a family 
affair of it. You see, Davy's radish is a sort of 
a name-cousin of your nasturtium, and I've 
been thinking that when I told about one I'd 
tell of the other, too, and that I'd call the 
story 

- 114 



APRIL 



IV 



A PEPPERY FAMILY 

'^Nobody seems to know just where the Cross 
family came from. You can find them in every 




"CABBAGE" WAS THE FAT FELLOW'S NAME 



part of the world now, some of them growing 
as weeds, some as flowers, and some as very fine 
vegetables. But wherever they came from, in 
the beginning, they were certainly of very sharp, 

115 



A LITTLE GARDEN C A L E N D A R 



biting natures, and never could agree. Why, 
they were so cross that even their flowers were 
shaped like little crosses, and people called them 
cruciferous, which means cross-shaped, and 
used to say of them, 

^ Cross by name and cross by nature, 
Cross of fibre, face, and feature/ 

and did not want them in their gardens, because 
they disturbed the other vegetables and flowers, 
and might make them cross, too. 

^^Well, the Cross family became tired of this, 
at last, and made up their minds to be either use- 
ful or ornamental : at least, most of them did. 
So the}^ got together, and after a great deal of 
quarrelling among themselves to begin with, 
for, of course, they couldn't help that when they 
had been unpleasant so long, they at last began 
to work together and decide what each wanted 
to be, and how it could be brought about. 

think,' said a fat one who was always* 
better-natured than any of the others, should 
like to be a nice sweet vegetable that people 

tt6 



APRIL 



were very fond of and gave a good place to, in 
their gardens, where I should be well taken care 
of.' 

^ ^So the Clerk of Plants, who was alive then, 
like the Weather Clerk, you know, put down 
-Cabbage,' which was the fat fellow's name, and 
wrote after it, ^ Sweet vegetable— needs care.' 

"■'I,^ said another, ^ would like to be a sweet 
vegetable, too, but I want to grow mostly under 
the ground, so that I will need less care to keep 
off insects and worms.' 

: " So then the Clerk of Plants wrote ' Turnip, ' 
and put after it, 'Vegetable with sweet, whole- 
some root; needs little care.' 

''So they went on with those who wanted to 
be vegetables. But most of the others did not 
want to be quite so sweet in their nature as the 
turnip and the cabbage. They said they liked 
people with a little temper of their own, so the 
radish, who was a fat, red little chap, was put 
down as a vegetable rather sweet, but with sharp 
flavor, and 'Horseradish' was put down, ^Very 

117 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



sharp and biting, to be used only for seasoning/ 
The Clerk was about to turn to those who 
wanted to be flowers, when a little green plant, 
who had been named 'Nose Torment,' because 
he made people 's noses itch and burn, spoke up 
and said, 'I should like to be beautiful and use- 
ful, too— a pretty green dressing that people 
like, and I will grow in the water, which may 
wash away some of my ill manners. ' 

''So then the Clerk of Plants dropped the 
name of 'Nose Torment' and wrote down, 
'Water Cross, a fine table-salad— grows in clear 
streams.' 

" 'But I don't like the name "Cross," ' said 
the little plant. 

" 'Oh, well,' said the clerk, 'spell it with an 
"e" then— make it Cress.' So Water-cress it 
became, and all the others spelled their family 
name with an 'e,' too, and became the Cress 
family instead of the Cross family, just as peo- 
ple often change the spelling of their names to- 
day. 

ii8 



APRIL 



^*But the Clerk of Plants wasn't through, for 
there were a good many who wanted to be flow- 
ers. Some of them wanted to be very sweet 
flowers, and some, like mustard, wanted to be 
flowers and useful, too. So the Clerk wrote 
down ^Wallflower,' and ^ Stock' and 'Candy- 
tuft,' and a good many others, but there was 
one gentle little blossom which said, 'Oh, I want 
to be white and pure, and have a sweet and deli- 
cate perfume that all people will love.' And 
this was 'Alyssum,' and when the Clerk wrote 
it down, he wrote it * Sweet Alyssum,' and so it 
has been called ever since. 

''And then, when the Clerk was all through, 
he said, 'There are some who have not come to 
the meeting. Where is your brother. Mustard? 
And yours, Alyssum, the one we call Pepper- 
grass, because he is so fiery?' 

"Mustard and Alyssum shook their heads 
sadly. 

" 'Well,' said the Clerk, ^they have had their 
chance. They are wild and will always be,' so 

119 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



he wrote down, ^Wild Mustard' and ^Pepper- 
grass,' and after these names he put the word 
^ Weeds.' " 

*^But my nasturtium, Papa, what about 
that?" 

^^Why, that's so, I forgot all about your 
nasturtium. Well, you see, it doesn't really 
belong to the Cress family, but is only a name- 
relative. The word nasturtium comes from 
two Latin words, nasi tormentum, which means 
Nose Torment, and it was Nasturtium that little 
Water-cress had sometimes been called." 

'^But," said Prue, ^^my nasturtium isn't 
water-cress. " 

^^No, but when it was discovered, and the peo- 
ple tasted the leaves and the flowers, and some- 
times used them for salad, and especially when 
they found it had a sharp-tasting seed, they 
called it Cress, Indian Cress, and then they took 
the name that little Water-cress had dropped and 
called it Nasturtium. So you see it isn't really 
a Cress or a Nasturtium. It is only called that. 

120 



APRIL 



It's true name is Acriviola, or Sharp Violet, 
because of its taste, and the flower, which is 




*<THEY CALLED IT NASTURTIUM" 



shaped something like a violet. All the true 

121 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



Cress family have a corolla of but four petals, 
shaped like a cross, and nearly all the flowers, 
and especially the seed-pods, have a sharp flavor. 
Even the Sweet Alyssum has the least touch of 
the old flavor, and mustard is very sharp. On 
the whole, the Cress family has become a most 
useful and ornamental family, and the Acriviola 
or Nasturtium, which is neither a violet nor a 
nasturtium, but a geranium— of the geranium 
family, I mean— need not be at all ashamed of 
its adopted names. 

V 

FOR IN THAT DISH WAS DAVy's CORN 

When big Prue's birthday came, there was 
much excitement. Of course, there were the 
presents which must be hidden until the very 
morning, but even the presents were not of the 
very greatest importance this year. Oh, no, 
this year it was the garden. Big Prue's birth- 
day was to be a regular garden feast. 

122 



APRIL 



For now the days had become warm and 
bright. Already the children had been to the 




ALYSSUM — THE SWEETEST OF THE CROSS" FAMIT.Y 



woods for hepaticas and violets, and everywhere 

Little Garden Calendar 123 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 

the trees were tinged with green. The little 
garden had fairly filled the window so that now 
von had to look between the vines to see. Even 
in the garden outside, the Chief Gardener had 
made some more beds, and the first ones— the 
radishes and lettuce— were so well along, that 
early on the morning of big Prue 's birthday he 
brought in some tiny radishes and some tender 
green salad leaves, almost as good, Da^^^ said, 
as the first ones from his garden. 

These are for breakfast," he said. ^^You 
and Prue will have to supply the birthday din- 
ner. " 

And that is just what they did. 

First of all there was a lovely bunch of sweet- 
pease on big Prue's plate— these, of course, 
being from Prue's garden. There was a little 
bunch of pansies for Prue, while for the Chief 
Gardener and Da^^^ there were round, bright 
sunflowers, one each for their buttonholes. 

In the center of the table there was a wonder- 
ful little glass bowl of nasturtium flowers, that 

124 



APRIL 



were so fresh and pretty that one must be hungry 
just to look at them. 

Then it was Davy^'s turn. 

In a pretty salad-dish on a little side table, 
there was a lettuce salad that looked like a 
great green bloom, and lying upon another 
smaller dish at the side, were four of the round- 
est, reddest radishes imaginable, the very last of 
the little garden crop. But now something came 
in in two small covered dishes, something that 
steamed, and behold, when they were opened, in 
one were Davy's beans, ever so many, white 
and mottled, all cooked and hot and ready to be 
eaten, and in the other Davy's pease! But that 
was not all. Still another steaming dish came 
in, and w^hen that was opened, everybody fairly 
shouted, ^^Oh, my!" for in that dish was Davy '3 
corn! Think of it! Two whole ears of corn, 
one large one to be divided between little Prue 
and Davy. 

Never was there such a birthday dinner as 
that. The flowers were beautiful, the beans and 

125 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



the pease splendid, while the corn, why the corn 
was just the sweetest and best corn that was ever 
raised. They all said so, and Davy got excited 
and said he was going to plant a thousand acres 
of corn just as soon as the Chief Gardener 
would let him. 

And then they began to plan for the new gar- 
den of summer-time, which was to be made out- 
side. 

Most of their things they thought they would 
take out of the windows, and reset in the open 
garden, but, of course, there were no radishes 
or lettuce to take now, and the corn and pease 
were no longer of value, while the vines would 
be hard to move. So they decided to take out 
all but the vines. Prue could reset her pansies 
and nasturtiums and sunflower, and the sweet- 
pease, which would bloom all summer, perhaps, 
leaving the morning-glories and scarlet runner 
in the windows, to bloom as long as they would. 

'^My windows would look very bare without 
even the vines left of the little gardens," said 

126 



APRIL 



big Prue, '^but it is getting so green outside, 
that we won't miss them so much now, and, of 
course, everything must go, sometime. ' ' 

**And we are going to have them next year," 
said Davy. ^^We will begin then earlier, and 
have other things, too, but first we are going 
to have ever and ever so much outside, in the 
real garden. Prue is going to have flowers, and 
I am going to have, oh, ever and ever so many 
good things to eat ! ' ' 

And so with big Prue's birthday dinner, the 
little garden in the windows saw its greatest 
glory, and the month of April, which had been its 
happiest season, came to a happy end. 



127 



MAY 



MAY 



I 

SWEET-PEASE HAVE TO BE PUT DOWN PRETTY DEEP 

IT was May and the apple-trees were in 
bloom. In the garden outside was the 
Chief Gardener, with Prue and Davy— one 
on each side— hoeing and digging and raking. 
The early plantings, like radishes and lettuce 
and pease, were already well along, but it was 
just time, now, for a second planting of these 
things, and for the first planting of such things 
as corn and beans, and most of the kinds of 
flowers. 

Some sweet-pease, it is true, little Prue had 
planted earlier, one warm day in April, 
when the Chief Gardener had dug for her 
a trench along the fence, and she had put in 

131 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



the pease, one at a time, and just so far apart, 
so that they wouldn't crowd, she said, or get in 
each other's way. The trench was quite deep— 
most too deep, Prue thought, but then sweet- 
pease have to be put down pretty deep, and the 
soil dragged up to the vines as they grow, to 
give them strength. Now, she planted some 
sweet-williams, and pansies, and mignonettes, 
and alyssum, and had brought most of her pots 
from the house, and set the things in a little row 
by themselves, so that they might still be com- 
pany as they had been through the long winter 
and late spring. 

Davy, too, had made a fine garden, with six 
hills of sw^eet-corn, one hill of cantaloupes, a row 
of pease, a little row of onions, lettuce, and 
radishes, besides a very small row of sweet 
herbs, such as marjoram, fennel, and thyme. 
Each garden was fully eight feet square, which 
is really quite a good-sized garden, when you 
remember that it must be kept nicely tilled and 
perfectly clean of weeds. 

132 



MAY 



' ' I think I will have a hill of cucumbers, too, ' ' 
said Davy. ^^I like cucumbers." 

'^But they won't do, near your cantaloupes," 
said the Chief Gardener. ' ' You see, cucumbers 
and cantaloupes belong to the same family, and 
one of the most twining, friendly families i 
know of. Each member left to itself is very 
good in its way, and often ornamental, but let 
them run together ever so little and before you 
know it they begin to mix up and look like one 
another, and even have tastes alike. A cucum- 
ber-hill there, Davy, would spoil the taste of 
your cantaloupes, and the cucumbers would not 
be good either. It's the same way with water- 
melons, and citrons, and pumpkins, and all the 
rest of the gourds." 
Gourds!" 

'^Why, yes, they all belong to the Gourd 
family, and they will all look and taste like 
gourds if you give them a chance. It's really, 
of course, because the pollen of one blows into 
the bloom of the other, and the members of the 

133 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 

Gourd family are so closely related that pollens 
blend and mix. Different kinds of corn will do 
the same thing. That is why we have our pop- 
corn as far from our sweet corn as we can get 
it. There are other families that do not mix at 
all. We grow apples and plums and peaches 
and roses, side by side— even different kinds of 
. each— and they never mix.'' 

*^But apples and plums and peaches are not 
roses, are they I " asked little Prue. 

Just as much as strawberries, and pears and 
quinces are," said the Chief Gardener. 

The children looked at him rather puzzled. 

^^How about blackberries and raspberries!" 
asked the Chief Gardener. Don't you think 
they look a little, a very little, like wild roses, 
only the flowers are smaller and white, instead 
of pink?" 

*^Why, yes, so they do!" nodded Davy. 

''And doesn't the bloom of a blackberry look 
like the bloom of a plum, and a cherry, and a 
pear, and an apple, and all those things?" 

134 



M A Y 



good deal," said Prue, ^^and wild crab 
blossoms look just like little wild roses, and they 
smell so sweet, too." 

^^And the wild crab has thorns like a rose, 
only not so sharp," said Day>^ 




don't you think the blackberry looks a little like a 
wild rose?" 



'^And a rose has little apples after the bloom 
falls," said the Chief Gardener. ''I have 
known children to eat rose apples, though 1 
don't think they could be very good." 

Davy had run down to the corner of the gar- 

135 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



den and came back now with something in his 
hand. It was a wild rose that grew by the hedge 
there; a pretty, single pink blossom. Then he 
stopped and picked a strawberry bloom, and one 
from the apple-tree that hung over the fence. 
These he brought over to the little bench where 
Prue and the Chief Gardener had sat down to 
rest. 

The Chief Gardener took them and held them 
side by side. 

There, vou will see thev are all verv much 
alike," he said. 

The children looked at them. Then Prue 
ran across tlie lawn and came back with a little 
yellow bloom. 

Isn't this flower one of them, too?'- she 
asked. ^'Some people call it wild strawberry, 
and some sink-field. ' ' 

^^That, " said the Chief Gardener, cinque- 
foil. I suppose the name sink-field comes from 
that. It is French, and means five-leaved, but 
sink-field is not so bad a name either, for it often 

136 



MAY 



grows in moist places. Yes, that is a rose, 
too." 

' ' Then buttercups must be roses, ' ' said Davy. 
^^They look just like that." 

^^No, Davy, that is one place where our eyes 
must look sharp. Can you find a buttercup?" 

^*0h, plenty," said Prue, and ran to bring* 
them. 

Then the Chief Gardener took a buttercup 
and an apple-bloom, and held them side by side. 
There was a difference, but not very great. 
Then he took his knife, and divided the blossoms 
in half. 

^^Now look again," he said, and he took a 
small magnifying-glass from his pocket and held 
it so that they could see. ^'The petals and the 
sepals (that make the corolla and the calyx, you 
know) are a good deal the same," he said, ''but, 
you see, there are many more stamens in the 
buttercup, and then the seed pod or pods, which 
we call the pistils, are not at all alike. The 
buttercup has a lot of tiny pods or pistils inside 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



the flower, while the apple-bloom has one round 
pod below the flower, and this forms the fruit. 
The buttercup does not make fruit. It belongs to 
the Crowfoot family, and is a cousin of the 
hepatica and of the larkspur, which you would 
not think from the shape of the larkspur's 
bloom. The Crowfoot family is not so beauti- 
ful nor so useful as the Eose family, which is, 
perhaps, the most useful family next to the Grass 
family, and certainly one of the most beautiful 
families in the world." 

^^I think the Rose family is nicer than the 
Grass family," said Prue. 

' ' Oh, no, ' ' said Davy. ' ' We couldn 't do with- 
out wheat and corn, and we could do without 
fruit and flowers— that is, of course, if we had 
to," he added with a sigh. 

^^I couldn't," said little Prue. "1 like flow- 
ers best, and jelly and jam to eat on my biscuits, 
and you like all those things, too, Davy, and 
shortcake, and berry pie. ' ' 

^ ^ Of course ! but how would you have biscuits 

138 



MAY 



and shortcake without wheat to make the flour 
ofr' 

The Chief Gardener smiled. 



^'We can't decide it," he said. ^^They go to- 




*'AND THE APPLE-BLOSSOM, TOO" 



gether. It is said that we shall not live on bread 
alone, and I don't think we could live altogether 
on fruit and flowers, though I believe some peo- 

10- "A Little Garden Calendar 1 39 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



pie try to do so. Jam and bread go together, 
and a shortcake must have both crust and fruit 
to be a real shortcake. Wlieat fields and or- 
chards march side by side, and taking these to- 
gether we have peach pudding and apple tart." 

Prue was looking out over her little garden 
where the smoothly patted rows of beds made 
her quite happy, just to see them. 

^^IVe got four things that begin with sweet," 
she said. ^^Sweet-pease, sweet-williams, sweet- 
mignonette, and sweet-alyssum. " 

^^And my little Sweetheart is the sweetest 
flower of all, ' ' said the Chief Gardener. 

II 

DIFFERENT FAMILIES OF ANTS HAVE DIFFERENT 
DROVES OF COWS 

It seemed wonderful to the Chief Gardener 

how much the children had learned just from 

the little pots of their window-garden. He had 

let them begin these gardens merely as an 

140 



MAY 



amusement, at first, but during those long winter 
weeks while the plants were growing and being 
cared for daily, little by little, Prue and Davy 
had been learning the how and why. When the 
seeds began to come now, he had to tell them, 
very little about the care of the plants. 

It is true that Davy was a little too anxious 
to hoe his rows of pease and salad almost be- 
fore they were out of the ground, and hoed up 
a few plants, while Prue wanted to water her 
garden when the bright sun was shining, which 
would have baked the ground and done more 
harm than good. But they both knew so much 
more than they had known a year ago, that the 
Chief Gardener was glad of those little window- 
gardens which were now gone. 

^^You see, I was remembering the worm that 
cut off one of my cornstalks," said Davy one 
morning when the Chief Gardener found him 
digging carefully around the tender shoots. ^^I 
found one, too, but he hadn't done any harm 
yet" 

141 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



^*I'm crumbling the hard dirt around my lit- 
tle plants," said Prue, ^4t's so sharp and cakey, 
and I pull out every little weed I see, so they 
won't have a chance to get big." 

The Chief Gardener looked on approvingly. 
Then he walked over to his own rows and looked 
carefully at his pease, which were just now be- 
ginning to bloom. Then he got down and looked 
more closely. Then he called Davy and Prue. 
They left their work and came quickly. 

^^Look here," said the Chief Gardener, ^^I 
have a whole drove of cattle in my garden." 

^'Cattle!" said Davy. 

**0h, Papa's just fooling," said Prue. 

^^Why, no," said the Chief Gardener, don't 
you see them. There is a whole drove of cows, ' ' 
and he pointed to some little green bug-like 
things that clustered on the tips of his pea-vines. 

The children looked closely and then turned 
to him to explain. 

There are some ants there, too," said Davy. 
**They are crawling up and down." 

142 



MAY 



^ ^ Yes, ' ' said the Chief Gardener. ' ' They own 
the cows. The cows are those green things— 
aphides, they are called, and the ants milk them. 
Look very carefully now. ' ' 

Prue and Da\^ watched and saw an ant go to 
one of the green insects and touch with its bill 
first one, and then the other, of two little horns 
that grew from the aphid's back. And then the 
ant went to another aphid, and did the same 
thing. Then they saw that tiny drops of fluid 
came from the ends of these tiny green horns. 

^'That,'' said the Chief Gardener, ^4s honey- 
dew, or ant's milk. The ants are very fond of 
it, and wherever you find these aphides, you will 
find ants, milking them. In fact, I believe the 
ants keep these aphides during the winter in 
some of their houses, and drive them in the 
spring to tender green feeding-places like these 
pea-vines, so that the milk will be sweet and 
plentiful. I have heard that different families 
of ants have different droves of cows, and fight 
over them, too.'' 

143 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



The children were very much interested in all 
this, and watched the ants run up and down the 
vines and milk their cows. Then the Chief 
Gardener said, ^^I'm sorry, but I'm afraid 
we'll have to get rid of these. They are very 
bad for young plants, and ants are, too. They 
suck the juice, and ruin them. I must give them 
a mixture." 

He went into the basement and cut up a few 
ounces of whale-oil soap, and dissolved it in hot 
water. Then when it was cool and weakened, 
he sprinkled the pease with it. The next day 
all the cows were gone, and most of the ants. 
But about a week later, just after a shower, there 
they were again, and the Chief Gardener said 
that the ants must have driven up a new herd. 
So he had to sprinkle them again, and even 
once more before the end of the month; and 
while he was sprinkling, he sprinkled the little 
gardens, too, for whale-oil soap when it isn't 
.used strong enough to hurt the young plants is 
a fine thing for little gardens, and big ones, too. 

144 



MAY 



III 

THERE ARE MANY WAYS OF PRODUCING SPECIES 

There were a good many rains in May. The 
weeds grew and grew, and it was hard to keep 
them down when it was wet and warm, and the 
plants were still so small. Prue and Davy had 
to get down close and pull them out carefully 
with their fingers, and this left the little green 
rows so straight and trim, and the earth smelled 
so nice when the sun came out warm, after a 
shower, that the children grew happy in the 
work, and wanted to plant new things almost 
every day. 

Around the house Prue had planted a border 
of nasturtiums on one side, and a border 
of marigolds on the other, and they were all 
coming up and looked as if they would grow 
into strong, fine plants. Davy had planted some 
hills of castor beans in the garden, because the 
Chief Gardener had said that they were good 

145 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



for the three Ms— moles, malaria, and mosqui- 
toes. He was also attending very faithfully to a 
row of strawberries which the Chief Gardener 
had told him he might have for his own. The 
little boy was quite skillful with a hoe, and 
could take care of his vegetables almost as well 
as the Chief Gardener, so the Chief Gardener 
thought. 

^^You must not hoe your beans when the dew 
is on them, Da\^% ' ' he said one morning. ' ' The 
vines are tender and it causes them to rust or 
blight, but you may hoe most of the other 
things, and you may hoe around most of your 
vegetables as often as you want to. Loosening 
up the soil about young plants makes them 
grow. It gives the roots a chance to spread, 
und lets sun and air into the soil. You must 
be a little more careful with flowers, Prue, for 
they are usually more tender, and it is better 
to dig with an old knife or a small, weeding 
rake. You must thin out your plants, too. Keep 
pulling from between, as they grow larger, so 

146 



MAY 



that they stand farther and farther apart. 
Where plants grow too thickly they are small, 
and the flowers and vegetables poor. People 
sometimes try to raise more on a small piece of 
ground by having more plants on it, but it does 
not pay, for the plants do not produce as much 
as if there were only half as many on the same 
soil. Give everything plenty of room and air, 
and they will grow and thrive like children who 
have a good playground and plenty of whole- 
some food." 

^^Papa," said Prue, ^'you were talking the 
other day of the different kinds of one thing: 
what makes them?— the different kinds of roses, 
I mean, and pansies, and—" 

^^And peaches and apples," interrupted Davy, 
^^I want to know that, too." 

The Chief Gardener did not answer just at 
first. Then he said, ^^I am afraid that is a 
pretty big subject for little people. There are 
a good many ways of producing species of 
flowers, and some of them are not easy to under- 

147 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



stand. But I can tell yon, perhaps, about the 
fruits now, and we will try to understand about 
some of the flowers another time. 

^' To begin with, the upper part and the lower 
parts of our fruit-trees are different. The root 
and a little of the lower stalk is from a seed, and 
upon this has been grafted or spliced with soft 
bands and wax, a bud from some choice kind of 
peach or apple or plum, or whatever the tree is 
to be, and this new bud grows and forms the 
tree. Sometimes a bud of the choice kind is 
merely inserted beneath the bark of another tree 
and grows and forms a new limb. By and 
by, when it bears fruit, the fruit will be of 
the kind that was on the choice tree, but the 
seed, though it looks just the same, may 
be altogether different. If a seed like that is 
planted, it may make a tree like the root part 
of the one from which it came, or it may make a 
tree like the upper part, or it may make some- 
thing different from either one. No one can tell 
what that seed will bring. So fruit growers 

148 



M A Y 



plant a great many such seeds each year, and 
once in a great while some new peach, or apple, 
or plmn, or cherry, finer than anything ever 
grown before, comes from one of those seeds. 
Then every little limb of that tree is saved and 
grafted or spliced to a lot of sturdy little roots 




The bark is slit to The bud is inserted The limb is then 

receive the bud in the opening closely bound 

BUDDING 



that have come from other seeds, and this new 
kind of fruit goes out all over the world and is 
grafted, and re-grafted, until there are trees 
everywhere of the new kind." 

^'And wouldn't I get those same fine peaches 

149 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



we had last year if I planted the seeds?" asked 
Davy. 

^^You might, Da\y, but there are a hundred 
chances to one that you would get a very poor, 
small peach, which you would not care to 
eat." 

Davy looked disappointed. 
^^Well," he said, ^'I might as well pull it 
up, then." 

^^AATiy, did you plant one, Da\^?" asked the 
Chief Gardener. 

^^Yes, last summer. I didn't know then, and 
after I ate my peach I planted the seed over 
there in the corner, and now it's just coming up, 
and I was going to keep it for a surprise for 
vou. ' ' 

'^That's too bad, Davy, but let it grow, any- 
way. Perhaps it will make some new and won- 
derful kind. Even if it doesn 't, we can have the 
limbs grafted when it is larger. ' ' 

^^Oh, and can you have more than one kind 
on a treeT* 

150 



M AY 



^^Why, yes, I have seen as many as three or 
four kinds of apples on one tree." 

^^And peaches, and apples, and plums, and 
pears, all on one tree, too ] ' ' said Prue. ' ' Why 
that would be a regular fairy tree ! ' ' 

' ' We could hardly have that, ' ' laughed the 
Chief Gardener, ^'though I have heard of 
peaches, and jaeetarines, and plums being all on 
one tree, though I have never seen it. I don't 
think such things do very well. ' ' 

They went over to look at Davy's little peach- 
tree, which was fresh and green and tender, and 
seemed to be growing nicely. 

'^It should have fruit on it in three years," 
said the Chief Gardener. 

Davy and Prue did not look very happy at 
this. It seemed such a long time to wait. 

^^It will pass before you know it," the Chief 
Gardener smiled. 

''I shall be as old as Nellie Taber," said little 
Prue, who had been counting on her fingers, 
^^but Nellie will be older, too," she added with 

151 ■ 



A LITTLE 



GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



a sigh. "So I'm afraid I can't catch up with 
her. ' ' 

The Chief Gardener led them over to another 
part of the garden, where there was a bunch 
of green leaves, like the leaves of a violet, but 
when they got down to look, they found that the 
flowers, instead of being all blue, were speckled 
and spotted with white. . ♦ 

^^Oh, Papa, where did you get those funny 
violets?" asked Prue. '^What makes them all 
speckly?" 

^^I think," said the Chief Gardener, "that 
this is one of Nature's mixtures. I found it in 
the Crescent Lake woods last spring, and 
brought it home. There may be others like it, 
but I have never seen them. So you see, 
Nature makes new kinds herself, sometimes. 
You know, don't you, that the pansies you love 
so much, Prue, are one kind of violet, cultivated 
until they are large and fine ! " 

^^"Why, no, are they violets? Are my pansies 
violets?" 

152 



MAY 



^^Yes, they are what is called the heartsease 
violets. They were a very small flower at first, 
and not so brightly colored. They will become 
small again if you let them run wild a year or 
two." 

Prue was looking at the variegated violet in 
her hand. 

^^I should think there's a story about this," 
she said, nodding her busy, imaginative little 
head. 

Suppose you tell it to us, Prue," said the 
Chief Gardener. 

^^Well, I think it's this way," said Prue. 
' ' Once upon a time there was a little girl named 
Bessie. And she lived way off— way over by 
Crescent Lake— with an old witch-woman who 
was poor. And Bessie had to carry milk to 
sell, every day, because they had a cow, and 
Bessie couldn't drink the milk, because they had 
to sell it. 

^^And one day when Bessie was going with 
the milk through the woods, she stopped to pick 

153 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 

some flowers, because she liked flowers, all kinds, 
and specially violets. And when she stooped 
over to pick the violets, a little of her milk 
spilled ont of her pail, and it went on the violets, 
right on the blue flowers. And when Bessie 
saw them all spattered with the milk she says, 
*0h, how funnv vou look! I wish vou'd stav 
that wav all the time.' And there was a fairv 
heard her say that, and she liked Bessie because 
she was so good, so she made the violets stay 
just that way with the white spots on them, and 
Bessie went home, and one dav when the old 
witch-woman died the fairy brought a prince on 
a white horse, and Bessie went away with him 
to be a princess, in a palace covered with gold 
and silver, and lived happy ever after." 

The Chief Gardener looked down at the little 
girl beside him. 

'^Why, what an exciting story! Did you 
make it all just now!" 

'^Yes, just now. It just came of itself," said 
little Prue. 



154 



MAY 



^^And didn't Bessie want her violets?" asked 
Davy. 

^ ' She took some of them along with her in a 
basket, and planted them around her new 
palace. ' ' 

*^And the rest she left for us," said the Chief 
Gardener. ^'I know now what to call them. 
We shall call them Bessie's Violets." 



11—^ LitUe Oavden Calendar 1 55 



JUNE 



JUNE 
I 

THEN THEY WENT DOWN INTO THE STRAWBERRY 

PATCH 

JUNE, the month of roses, and strawberries. 
The beautiful month when spring is just 
turning to summer, and summer is giving 
us her first rare gifts. 

In Dav^^'s garden the corn was up, and had 
grown more in two weeks than the corn planted 
in the house had grown in four. It was the long 
sunny days that did this, and the showers that 
seemed to come almost too often, but perhaps 
the gardens didn't think so, for they grew, and 
the weeds grew, too, and kept Prue and Davy 
busy pulling and hoeing and cultivating. 

159 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



Da^"}^'s radishes were big enough to eat just 
a month from the day they were planted— think 
of it!— when those planted in the house had 
taken ever and ever so long. Prue's pansies 
and sweet-pease, and her other three ' ' sweets ' ' 
were all up, too, and so green and flourish- 
ing. 

But perhaps the thing that made them both 
happiest, at this season, was the Chief Gar- 
dener's strawberry-patch. Either that or big 
Prue's roses— they were not sure which. 

^^Wlien I grow up, I am going to have acres 
and acres of strawberries," said Davy. 

^^And miles and miles of roses," said Prue. 

^^ And herds and herds of little Jersey cows 
that only give the richest cream, ' ' said the Chief 
Gardener. 

^^And we'll put wreaths of roses about the 
cows' necks," said big Prue, ^^and drive them 
home at evening, and milk the rich creamy milk 
and put it on the fresh strawberry shortcake, 

just out of the oven—" 

i6o 



J IJ N E 




THE CHIEF gardener's STRAWBERRIES 
(Members of the Rose Family) 



^^And eat and eat forever," interrupted 
Davy. 

^^And be happy ever after/' finished little 
Prue. 

i6i 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



After that nobody said anything for quite a 
long time— thinking how fine all that would be, 
when it came. 

Then they went down into the strawberry- 
patch where the big red berries were ripening 
on the broad, green leaves. And little Prue 
and her mamma went into the house and came 
out with two bowls— one quite large bowl— 
white, with blue vines and flowers on it, and 
one quite small bowl— white, with blue kittens 
on it, chasing one another around and around 
on the outside. 

And the Chief Gardener and big Prue picked 
the ripe red berries and put them in the big 
bowl. And Davy and little Prue picked the 
ripe red berries and put them into the little 
bowl. And sometimes the Chief Gardener 
would eat a berry— a real, real ripe one— just 
to see if they were good, he said. 

And sometimes big Prue would eat a berry— 
a real, real little one— just to see if little berries 
would do for a shortcake, she said. 

162 



JUNE 



And sometimes little Pruc would eat a berry, 
end sometimes Davy would eat a berry— big, 
big berries— just because they looked so good, 
and tasted so good, that a little boy and a little 
girl could not help eating them, even if it took 
some of the berries out of the shortcake they 
were going to have for tea. 

But they didn't eat all of the berries they 
picked. Oh, no. They put some of the berries 
into the little white bowl with the blue kittens 
chasing one another around and around on the 
outside. And the Chief Gardener and big Prue 
put most of their berries into the big bowl with 
the blue flowers and vines on it. And by and by * 
both of the bowls were full— full clear to the top 
and heaping— so that no more berries, not even 
the very little ones, would lay on. 

And then big Prue took the big bowl, and lit- 
tle Prue the little bowl, and they went up the 
little garden step into the house, carrying the 
bowls very carefully, so as not to spill any of 
the red berries that were heaped up so high that 

163 



A L I T T L E GARDEN C A L E X D A R 



no more, not even very little ones, would lay on. 
And the Chief Gardener and Davy followed 
along behind, talking of the fine June evening, 
and saying how long the days were now and 
how far to the north the sun was setting. Then 
they looked around at the garden, and won- 
dered if they would have green corn by the 
middle of July, and when they looked under the 
bean vines they found that some pods were 
quite large, and the Chief Gardener said that 
by Sunday they could have beans, and pease, 
with lettuce and several other green things — a 
regular garden dinner. 

And then little Prue came out and called them 
to come— right off. And they saw that she was 
dressed in a fresh white dress, and that her hair 
was tied with a bright blue ribbon, and her face 
was as rosy as a strawberry. 

^^We have got the deliciousest shortcake that 
ever was ! ' ' she called, as they cam^ closer, ' ' and 
I helped, and rolled the dough and picked over 
some of the berries ! " 

164 



JUNE 



^^You didn't put all the berries in," said the 
Chief Gardener. 
^^Oh, I did-I did, Papa-all but two." 
''And I will have those," said the Chief Gar- 




BIG, RIG BERRIES THAT LOOKED SO GOOD 



dener, and he lifted the little girl in his arms 
and gave her a big, big kiss, on each rosy 
cheek. 

''I think June is the best month that ever 

165 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



was!" said Davy a little later, as he finished 
his second large piece. 

^^It always seems the queen month to me/' 
said big Prue, ' ' perhaps because it is the month 
of the rose— the queen of the flowers." 

^^Is the rose really the queen of the flowers?" 
asked little Prue. 

^^I have always heard so." 

^^How did she get to be queen ? Did she just 
happen to be queen, or did the other flowers 
choose her I ' ' 

Little Prue 's mamma looked thoughtfully out 
the garden window, where a great climbing 
rambler was a mass of red blossoms. 

^^Do you think any other flower could be 
queen over that?" she asked. 

^*Why, no, but— but don't folks have to 
choose queens, or something?" 

^^They do presidents," said Davy. 

^^I think you'll have to tell us about it," 
laughed the Chief Gardener. ^^It's your turn 
for a story, anyway." 

i66 



JUNE 



So then big Prne took them all out on the wide 
veranda, where they could watch the sunset, 
that came very late now, and there she told 
them 

II 

HOW THE ROSE BECAME QUEEN 

**Once upon a time there was a very great 
garden that lay between two ranges of blue, 
blue hills. And the sky above was blue, as blue 
as the hills, so that you could hardly tell where 
the sky ended and the hills began, and under- 
neath was the great, beautiful garden which 
covered all the lands between. 

^^And in this rare garden there were all the 
choicest flowers and fruit that the world knew, 
and when the flowers were all in bloom, under 
that blue, blue sky— in all the wonderful colors 
of gold and crimson, and royal purple, and with 
all the banks of white daisies, and all the sweet 
orchards of apple-bloom, there was nothing like 

T67 



A LITTLE G A R D E X CALENDAR 



it in the ^hole world, and the sweet perfume 
went ont so far that sailors on the ships coming 
in from sea, a hundred miles away, could smell 
the sweet odors, and would say, ^The wind 
blows from the garden of the Princess Beauti- 
ful. ' For I must tell you that the garden was 
owned by a great Princess, and she was called 
Beautiful by all who knew of her, and every 
traveler to that distant country made his w^y 
to her white marble palace to seek permission 
to look upon the most wonderful garden in all 
the world. 

^^And many who came there were of high 
rank, like herself, and some of them tried to 
win her love, for the Princess was like her name 
and as beautiful as the rarest flower in all that 
marvelous garden. But to princes and even 
kings she would not listen, for her heart and 
pride were only in her flowers, and she wished 
to remain with them forever and be happy in 
their beauty. She was only sad when she saw 
that some of those who came went away with 

i68 



JUNE 



heavy hearts because she would not leave her 
palace for theirs. 

**Now once there came to the palace of the 
Princess Beautiful a great queen. She had 
traveled far to see the splendid garden, and when 
she came, the Princess led her with all her court 
among the flowers. And all that sunlit day, 
under the blue, blue sky, the great queen and 
her court lingered in the garden— up and down 
the paths of white shells, where hyacinths and 
lilies and daffodils and azaleas grew on every 
side— and rested in the shade of the blossoming 
orchard trees. And when it was evening, and 
they had gone, and the flowers were left alone, 
they whispered and murmured together, for 
never before had they seen a queen and her 
court. 

^ ' And by and by as the days passed, the flow- 
ers decided that they, too, must have a queen— 
some rare flower, fine and stately,, whom they 
would honor, even as they had seen their beau- 
tiful Princess honor her royal guest. And 

169 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



night after night they talked of these things, 
but never conld decide which of their number 
should be chosen for the high place. 

And then one day a great sadness came upon 
the fair garden between the hills. A young 
traveler from an unknown country had come 
to the white palace, and one sunny afternoon 
the Princess Beautiful had led him among the 
beds of primroses and lilies and dalfodils. And 
when the sun was going down and she turned 
and looked into his face, and saw how fair he 
was, and how the sun made his hair like gold, 
how it shimmered on his beautiful garments of 
velvet and fine lace, she felt for the first time a 
great love arise within her heart. Then, all at 
once, she forgot her garden, her palace and her 
pride— forgot everything in all the world ex- 
cept the fair youth who stood there with her 
in the sunset— and she told him her great new 
love. 

^^And as she spoke, softly and tenderly, the 
words she had never spoken to any one before, 

170 



JUNE 



the breeze died, and the sun slipped down be- 
hind the far-off hills. And then, as the light 
faded, it seemed to the Princess Beautiful that 
the fair youth before her was fading, too. His 
face grew dim and misty— his hair became a 
blur of gold— his rare garments melted back 
into the beds of bloom. And behold, instead of 
the fair youth there stood before her in the 
twilight only a wonderful golden lily with a 
crimson heart. 

^^Then the Princess Beautiful knew that be- 
cause she had cared only for her garden, and 
had sent from her those who had offered a great 
love like her own, that this wonderful lily had 
come to her as a youth with a face of radiant 
beauty, and with hair of gold, to awaken a 
human love in her heart. And each day she 
mourned there by the splendid lily, and called 
upon it to return to her as the fair youth she 
had loved ; and at last when its flowers faded and 
the stem drooped, the white palace of the Prin- 
cess Beautiful was empty, for the Princess lay 

12— A Little Garden Calendar I7T 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



dead beside the withered lily in the rare garden 
between the hills. 

^'And there they made her grave, and above it 
they built a trellis where a white climbing rose 
might grow. Bnt when the rose bloomed, in- 
stead of being white, it was a wonderful crimson, 
snch as no one had ever seen before. And when 
the other flowers saw those beantifnl ciimson 
blossoms, they no longer mourned, for they said, 
' This is our Princess Beautiful who has returned 
to be our queen. ^ 

^^And so it was the red rose became the queen 
of flowers, and a symbol of great human love. 
The poet Burns sings, 

^Mj love is like a r^d, red rose 
Inat's newly blown in June/ 

and it was always in June that the great crimson 
rose bloomed on the grave in the garden of the 
Princess Beautiful." 

^^And did the lily ever bloom again?" asked 
little Prue. 

^^I'm sure it must have done so. We always 

172 



JUNE 



speak of roses and lilies as belonging together, 
and there is a great golden lily called the 
Superbus, which I think might have been the 
beautiful youth that came to the white palace." 

^^Does the story mean that we shouldn't care 
too much for our gardens ! ' ' asked Davy. ^ * More 
than for folks, I mean?" 

^^Do you know, Davy," said the Chief Gar- 
dener, was just wondering about that, too." 

Ill 

THE SUN IS THE GREATEST OF ALL CHEMISTS 

It was about a week later, that one afternoon 
little Prue and Davy and the Chief Gardener 
were helping big Prue with her roses, and ad- 
miring all the different kinds. Little Prue had 
been thinking a good deal about roses since the 
story of the Princess Beautiful, and wondering 
just which of the climbing red ones had grown 
about her grave. Then she began to wonder 
about all the kinds, and how they came. She 

173 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



spoke about this now, as her mamma pointed 
out one which she said was a new rose— just 
offered for sale that year. 

Where did it come from!" asked the little 
girl, where do new roses come from?" 

'^From seed," answered the Chief Gardener, 
' ' like the new peaches and apples I told you of. 
Roses belong to the same family, you know, and 
they are grafted much in the same way. Then 
the seeds are planted, and from these, fine new 
kinds are likely to come. Rose-growers are al- 
ways trying hard to make new kinds by mixing 
the pollen. The pollen, you remember, is the 
yellow powder on the little tips of the stamens. 
These tips, as I believe I told you, are called 
anthers, and the slender part of the stamen is 
the filament. It is the pollen falling from the 
anthers upon the single green stem or pistil in 
the center of the flower that produces the seed. 
The pistil is divided in parts, too. The little 
top piece is called the stigma, and the slender 
green stem is called the style. The pollen falls 

174 



JUNE 



on the stigma and is drawn down through the 
style to give life to the seed-pod below." 

The Chief Gardener picked the bloom of a 




THE ROSE STAMENS AND PISTIL WHICH PRODUCE THE SEED 



single bramble rose and pulled it apart to show 
the children all these things. 

^^Now," he went on, gardeners often take a 

175 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



rose of one kind and color and shake it gently 
over a rose of another kind and color, so that 
the pollen will fall from the anthers of one upon 
the stigma of the other. In this way the seeds 
are mixed and it may happen that wonderful 
new roses come from those seeds. Sometimes, 
instead of shaking the rose, the gardener care- 
fully takes up the pollen on a tiny soft brush and 
lays it gently on the stigma of the other rose, 
all of which has to be done as soon as the bloom 
^is open. Of course, such roses are kept to 
themselves, and labeled, and the seeds are care- 
fully labeled also.'' 

Davy and Prue were both interested. 

^^Oh, can I make some new kinds of roses,'' 
asked little Prue, greatly excited. '^Can I, 
Mamma?" 

^'You may try, but I am afraid you will not 

be very successful where all the roses are out 

here in the open air. Still, it will do no harm 

to see what will happen, and you might get 

something very wonderful." 

176 



JUNE 



^^I am already trying for a new kind of 
peach, ' ' said Davy. 

*'And if you get a good one we will call it 
the ^ Early David,' " laughed the Chief Gar- 
dener. 

' ' And what will you call my rose ? ' ' 

^^Why, ^the Princess Prue,' of course." 

^^Do seeds from the same bush make the dif- 
ferent roses?" asked Davy. 

*^Yes, and from the same pod." 

^^But are the seeds just alike?" 

^^They are so far as anybody can see, but 
when they come to grow and bloom, one may be 
a white rose, another pink, and another red. 
Some may be dwarfs in size, and others giants. 
All may have the same sun, the same water, the 
same air, and the same soil. It is only the tiny 
little difference which we cannot see that makes 
the great difference in the plant, by and by. ' ' 

Davy was thinking very hard. Soon he said : 

'^And where do sweet and sour and all the 
pepper and mustard and horseradish tastes 

177 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



come from? The air and the water don't taste. 
I never tasted much dirt, but I don't believe any 
of it would bite like a red pepper." 




GARDENERS OFTEN TAKE A ROSE OF ONE KIND AND SHAKE IT 
GENTLY OVER A ROSE OF ANOTHER KIND 

The Chief Gardener laughed. 

''No, Dav}^, I don't believe it would," he said. 

1/8 



JUNE 

' ' And I think the sun is the only one who could 
answer your question. It is a chemistry which 
no one of this world has been able to explain. 




SOMETIMES THE GARDENER TAKES UP THE POLLEN ON A SOFT BRUSH 
AND LAYS IT GENTLY ON THE STIGMA OF ANOTHER ROSE " 



Chemistry is a magic which you will understand 
by and by, and you will know then that the sun 
is the greatest of all chemists. Suppose we go 

1/9 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



down into yonr gardens and see what he is doing 
there. ' ' 

They all went down the little steps that led to 
the Chief Gardener 's enclosure, where Prue and 
Davy had their gardens, side by side with his. 
There just as they entered was a great mass of 
morning-glory vines that every morning were 
covered with a splendor of purple, and pink, 
and white, and blue, and just beyond these was 
a mass of dianthus pinks of every hue and shade. 
Bachelor-buttons, petunias, and verbenas were 
all there, too, besides Prue's sweet-pease by the 
fence, and her alyssum and mignonette. Then 
came Davy's things, all fresh and growing, and 
bevond these the Chief Gardener had ever so 
many things, from beets to beans, from parsley 
to parsnips, from carrots to corn. In one small 
corner by the strawberry-bed there grew a little 
bed of pepper plants, and near-by a row of 
tomatoes. The Chief Gardener stopped in the 
midst of all these things. 

Here is the sun's chemistry," he said. **We 

f8o 



J U X E 



put some tiny bits of life in the ground. The 
same earth holds them, the same rain wets them, 
the same air is above them. Then the sun 
shines, and with that earth and water and air 
and that tiny seed, it makes something different 
of its own. Of one it makes a flower, of another 
a fruit, and of another a vegetable. Of the 
flowers it makes many kinds and colors— of the 
fruits and vegetables it makes many shapes and 
flavors. The sweet red strawberry and the fiery 
red pepper grow side by side. It makes food 
of the roots of the beet, and the parsnip, and 
carrot, and of the seed of the bean, and of the 
corn. It fills the mustard, and the horseradish, 
and the pepper, with a flavor so that we may 
season our meats and soups, and it gives to 
thyme, and marjoram, and fennel, a sweet savor 
that is like an odor of by-gone days. Into the 
flowers it pours the color and perfume that 
make them delicious and beautiful, and into the 
fruit and vegetables the starch and phosphates 
that make them pleasant to the taste and nour- 

i8i 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



ishing to our bodies. Where do all these things 
come from? We do not see the colors, or smell 
the perfumes, or taste the sweet and the sour 
and the bitter in the air and water, and we could 
not see, or smell, or taste, them in the earth. 
Yet they must be there, and only the sun knows 
just how and where to find them, and how to 
make the best use of them for the world's good, 
and comfort, and happiness. Without the sun 
the earth would be bare and cold, and there 
would be no life— at least, not such life as we 
know. Every breath we draw, every bite we 
eat, every step we take, every article of clothing 
we wear, comes to us through the sun. ' ' 

^^Papa, we can see the sun's colors," said 
Davy. ^'When it shines through the cut-glass 
berry-dish it makes all its colors on the table- 
cloth." 

^^So it does, Davy, I didn't remember that. 
A glass prism shows us all the colors in the sun- 
light, and these are the colors that it puts into 

the flowers and fruit— just how, I am afraid we 

182 



JUNE 



shall never know, though like all great wonders, 
I suppose, it is really a very simple thing. When 
plants grow without sunlight, they grow without 
color, and it is the same with little boys and 
girls. Open air, sunlight, fresh water, and good 
food— these are what make plants and people 
strong and happy and beautiful." 

And so June passed and half the year was 
gone. Prue and Davy were brown from work- 
ing and playing out of doors, and were growing 
so fast that Davy said it was hard for his corn 
to keep up with him. They took great pride in 
the flowers and vegetables that came to the table 
from their gardens and always wanted them in 
separate dishes from those that came from the 
larger garden. When any of their friends came 
to dine with them, it was Prue's flowers that 
were to be worn and Davy^s vegetables that 
were first to be served. By the end of June 
some of the early things were gone, and had 
been replanted. Other things had grown so big 
that they were beginning to crowd in their rows 

183 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



and beds, so that by the first of July, the little 
gardens that grew side by side, and could be 
seen like a picture through the windows where 
the winter gardens had been, reminding little 
Prue of Alice's garden in AVonderland, had be- 
come almost a wonderland jungle. 



184 



« 



JULY 



JULY 



I 



A PLANT IS DIVIDED INTO THREE PRINCIPAL PARTS 

**/^^LASS in botany will please rise.'*' 



tree. It was a warm day, and tliey were rest- 
ing in what they called their house/' because 
it was a shut-in nook behind the corn, and with 
tall sunflowers on the other side. Just now 
when the Chief Gardener came upon tliem they 
were pulling some flowers to pieces and talking 
about them very earnestly. 

Class in botany please rise,'' he said again, 
taking a seat himself on a bench close by. 

^'But I can't— it's too warm," said little Prue, 
^^and besides I've got my lap full of flowers.'^ 

tS^A Little Garden Calendar 1 87 




Davy and Prue looked up quickly 
from their little comer by the peach- 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



^ ' Can 't the class in botany sit by the teacher ? ' ' 
asked Davy. 

The teacher moved over. Prue gathered her 
dress into an apron, and presently the children 
were perched one on each side of the Chief Gar- 
dener, who fanned himself with his straw hat, 
for it was a real Jnly day. 

We've been seeing how many of the parts 
of a plant we knew," said Davy. ^^We know 
all the parts, I guess, bnt of some plants we 
can't tell which are which." 

'^Suppose you name the parts for me," said 
the Chief Gardener. 

^^Oh, let me! Let me!" began Prue. 
asked first!" 

Davy looked a little disappointed, but waited. 

^^Very well, suppose you try, Prue." 

The little maid was excited. 
Why— why, there's the c 'roller and the calyx 
and the pistil and the panthers, and—" 

The Chief Gardener laughed in spite of him- 
self, and Davy looked rather shocked. 

i88 



JULY 



^^She always calls the anthers * panthers,' " 
he said, sorrowfully, ^^and she never will say 
^corolla' right." 

^^And those are not the parts of a plant 
either," added the Chief Gardener, *'bnt the 
parts of a flower. A plant is divided into three 
principal parts. Now, Dslyj, it's your turn. 
See if you can tell me what they are. ' ' 

*^Well," began Davy, "the root is one." 

^^The root is one, Davy; quite right. Now 
for the others. " 

^^The leaves are another." 

^^The leaves, yes, the leaves are another." 
And the flower makes three, doesn't it? But 
then there's the stalk, too. That makes four. 
There must be four parts." 

^ ^ There are a great many parts, ' ' nodded the 
Chief Gardener, ^^but there are only three prin- 
cipal parts— the root, the stem, and the leaf. 
To a botanist— one who studies plants and how 
they grow— the flower is only a branch of the 
stem, and its parts are leaves." 

189 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



suppose that is why rose-petals are called 
leaves/' said little Prue. 

''I think it is." 
But— but don't you think a flower ought to 
be a principal part?" asked Davy. 

*^Well, it is in a way. It is a particular kind 
of a principal part, made for a special purpose. 
But after all, it is really a branch, for it comes 
from a bud, just as other branches do, and it 
comes just where any branch would come. 
Many times you cannot tell whether a bud is 
going to make a flower or just leaves until it 
opens. And there are a few queer flowers in 
the world that can hardly be told from leaves 
even after they do open." 

II 

THERE ARE EXOGENS AND ENDOGENS 

^^Now let US tell the parts of a flower. That 
was what we were doing when you came up," 
said Davy. 

190 ' 



JULY 



*'And let me tell again," said little Pnie. ^^I 
know I can get them right, this time." 

So little Prue told again, and got it almost 
right, though she did call anthers panthers" 
again, just as the first time. 

^^Now, Davy, it's your turn," said the Chief 
Gardener. 

Davy picked up a little pink flower which 
he had found in the grass. It was oxalis, or 
sorrel, and sometimes the children nibbled the 
sour leaves, calling it sour-grass. Of course, 
you must not forget that Davy was older 
than Prue, and perhaps a little more 
thoughtful. 

' ' This, ' ' he began, picking off the little green 
flower-casing, ' ' is the calyx, and each little piece 
is called a sepal. This flower has five sepals in 
its calj^x, and five petals in its corolla. These 
are the petals, ' ' and he pulled out the little pink 
flower-leaves, and laid them by the green sepals. 
Then he held it up for the Chief Gardener and 
little Prue to see. 

igi 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALL N D A R 



^^Look at the stamens/' lie said. ^^They all 
grow together at the bottom.'' 

That's because your sorrel is a Monadel- 
phian," said the Chief Gardener. 

Davy looked puzzled. 



means brotherly union. You see those stamens 
are all brothers and are joined together as 
one. All plants with such stamens are called 
Monadelphians. ' ' 

^^A stamen has three parts," Davy went on, 
^Mts filament, its anther, and its pollen. The 




^ ' I know what a Phila- 
delphian is," said Prue. 



Davy laughed. 



THE PISTIL AND STAMENS OF 
THE LILY 



^^The words are very 
much alike," smiled/the 
Chief Gardener. ^^They 
both mean brotherhood, 
and come from some old 
Greek words. Philadel- 
phia means brotherly 
love, and Monadelphia 



JULY 



filament is the stem, the anther is its cap, and 
the pollen is the dust which falls on the pistil and 
helps to make the seed. ' ^ 

Very carefully Davy took away the ring of 
stamens, and left only 
the little yellowish - 
green center of the 
sorrel flower. 

' ' This is Avhere we get 
the seed,'' he said, as 
gravely as an old college 
professor lecturing to a 
class. ^^This is the y)is- 
til, and it has three 
parts, too: the pod, the 
style, and the stigma. 
The stigma is the little 
piece at the top which 
catches the pollen from the anthers. The style 
is the stem, and the pod is the big part below 
which holds the seeds. ' ' 

He held up the little stripped flower again. 

193 




A PISTIL AND CALYX AND A 
COMPLETE FLOWER 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



' ' This pistil has five styles and five stigmas, ' ' he 
went on. *^A good many flowers have more 
than one. It has ten stamens, too— two stamens 
for each style, and five petals and five sepals. 
Yon can divide it by five all the way throngh. ' ' 

' ' Even to the seed-pod, ' ' added the Chief Gar- 
dener. ^^It has five divisions," and he cnt the 
tiny green pnlp and showed them with his 
magnifying-glass. ^^The little sorrel flower is 
one of the most perfect of flowers— one of the 
most perfect in a great class of flowers called 
Ex-o-gens. There is one other class called End- 
o-gens. Those words are from the Greek, too. 
Exogen means ontward - growing. Endogen 
means inward-growing. The stem of an Exogen 
grows by layers, as most trees grow." 

^ ' Oh, yes, ' ' said Prne, ' ' I know. We counted 
the rings on that big oak that was cnt down 
over by the lake last year. It had one ring for 
each year. ' ^ 

That's right, Prue, and the stem of the 
Endogen grows inside a shell, and is often just 

194 



JULY 



a soft pith, like the inside of a cornstalk. These 
are the two great classes of all flowering plants 




A GROUP OF ENDOGENS — THE LILY, HYACINTH, AND DAFFODIL 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



and trees. You can alwavs tell the difference 
by their stems ; nearly always from their leaves ; 
always from their seeds, if you have a strong 
magnifying-glass, for the little germ of the 
Exogen has two leaves like the morning-glory, 
and the germ of the Endogen has but one like 
the lily, or corn. But the easiest way for you 
to tell is by the flowers. An Exogen flower 
nearly always goes by fives, like the little sorrel 
bloom, sometimes by fours, but hardly ever 
by threes. The Endogen flower is nearly al- 
ways divided in threes, like the lily, which has 
six petals. It very seldom has four parts, and 
never five. So, you see, we know right away 
that the sorrel and the rose and buttercup are 
Exogens, and that the lily and the hyacinth and 
the daffodil are Endogens. Of course, there 
are many flowers not so easy to place as these, 
and I am afraid I am giving you too hard a les- 
son for one time, especially for such a hot day/^ 

^ ' But I 'm not hot now, ' ' said Daw. ^ ' There 
a fine breeze, and I like to sit here and talk. ' ' 

196 



JULY 



So they talked on about the different kinds 
and classes of plants, and by and by when big 
Prue found them, little Prue had much to tell 
her about all the new things she had learned. 
And she was careful not to pronounce anything 
wrong, and to explain that an Exogen was a 
plant that grew on the outside, and that an 
Endogen was another plant that grew on the 
inside, and big Prue said that Davy must be an 
Exogen, because he was getting so fat, and that 
little Prue must be an Endogen, because she 
was growing so smart. Then everything had 
to be told over, and then it was tea-time, with 
a dainty table all spread under the arbor, and 
delicious raspberries, and very, very delicious 
ice-cream. 

Ill 

I DON^T SEE WHAT WEEDS ARE FOR, ANYWAY 

And the very next day was Fourth of July, 
with all the fire-crackers and torpedoes and sky- 
rockets that always come on that day. 

197 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



But there was something else. For when big 
Prue and the Chief Gardener come to the break- 
fast-table, they found that Davy and little Prue 
had arranged what Prue called a ^^susprise." 
The room was all red, white, and blue— not with 
jflags or bunting, but with flowers. 

There were bowls of red and white and blue 
morning-glories on the sideboard, and in the 
center of the table there was a very large bowl 
of red, white, and blue sweet-pease, so nicely ar- 
ranged that each color was separate, and the 
whole looked like a cake of flowers cut in three 
equal parts. And there were other red and 
white and blue flowers, too, but the sweet-pea 
bowl in the center was the finest of all. 

There was not much gardening that day, of 
course, for there were parades to see and music 
to hear, and fireworks in the evening. The 
Chief Gardener had brought home the fireworks, 
and when all the rockets had been fired and the 
Roman candles, he brought out something larger 
than the rest, and when it was lighted, it all at 

198 



JULY 



once turned into a great flower-pot and sent out 
hundreds of the most beautiful fiery flowers, 
such as no garden would grow, no matter how 
hot it was. 

^^That is to pay for the sus-prise you gave us 
this morning," said the Chief Gardener, when 
little Prue was through dancing and squealing 
and jumping up and down with delight. ' ' They 
grew in that hot sun yesterday." 

But little Prue didn't believe it, though she 
did ask if some of the stars which came out of the 
rockets didn't stay in the sky with the other 
stars. She was quite certain she had never seen 
so many in the sky before. 

July was a great month in the little gardens. 
Almost everything bloomed and bore. The 
pinks, the pansies, the alyssum, the sweet-wil- 
liams and the morning-glories— they grew and 
then bloomed and crowded each other in their 
beds until some of them had to be moved into 
new places, while as for Davy's things, his corn 
grew taller and taller, until it shaded his to- 

199 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



mato vines, and he was afraid they would not 
do well for want of sun. But the sun was up 
so high, and was so hot in July, that perhaps 
they got enough anyway, for they grew so big 
they had to be tied up, and the tomatoes on them 
were so large that Davy thought one was almost 
enough for a whole family. As for his beans— 
well, Davy will plant fewer beans next year. 
They began to bear just a little at first, and then, 
all at once, there were beans enough on his few 
hills, not only for himself and Prue, but for the 
rest of the family, and then for the neighbors, 
too. Davy picked nearly all one hot afternoon 
to keep up with his bean crop, and then nearly 
trotted his fat legs otf carrying little baskets to 
the different people that he knew, explaining to 
each that these were really from his own gar- 
den—his own beans that he had planted and 
tended himself. Then he and Prue carried some 
vegetables and flowers to a little hospital not far 
away, where there were some sick children, and 
some who were just getting well. And it was a 

200 



JULY 



happy, happy time for the little boy and girl 
when they took the things they had planted and 
cared for to the other little boys and girls who 
seemed so glad to have them come. 

But as the weather grew warmer and summer 
showers came the weeds got worse and worse. 
Sometimes when Davy and Prue had tried very 
hard to get them all out and found that new 
ones had come almost over night, while some of 
the old ones they had cut down had taken root 
again, they were almost discouraged. 

^^T don't see what weeds are for an way, " 
Davy said one warm morning, almost crying, 
and little Prue, whose face was very red and 
hot, flung herself down in the shady peach-tree 
house, too tired to talk. ' ^ Now, there 's that old 
pursley, I pull and pull and cut, and unless I 
carry every bit of it away, it all takes root again 
and grows right along as if I hadn't touched it." 

**Yes,'' said the Chief Gardener, ^4t is a nui- 
sance. I suppose its pretty sister is very much 
ashamed of it." 

201 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



^^Its sister! Why, who is its sister?" asked 
Davy, while little Prue sat up and forgot she 
was tired. 

^^Miss Portulaca Purslane, of course, some- 
times called Rose-moss, because her flower is 
something like a wild rose and her stem and 
leaves a little like overgrown moss. ' ' 

**0h, is my sweet rose-moss just old pursley 
weed!" whimpered little Prue, who was very 
proud of a little bunch of portulaca that was 
just in full bloom. She had chosen the pretty 
flower from a catalogue, and it had been one of 
her best growers. 

' ' Why, no, Prue, your rose-moss is not a weed 
at all, but she belongs to the Purslane family, 
and like a good many other families it has a 
member who has run wild and become a dis- 
grace to its relatives and a trouble to every- 
body. There is another wild purslane, but it 
is not a weed. It is just a little wild-wood 
cousin of Portulaca. Her name is Claytonia, 
and she lives in pleasant places in the woods, 

202 



JULY 



and hides under the leaves in winter-time. Most 
people call her Spring-beauty. ' ' 

^^Oh, Spring-beauty! Oh, I know! Just 
bushels of them— Davy and I found over by the 
lake last spring !- Little white flowers with pink 
lines in them, and smell— just a little tiny smell 
—so— so springy and wild. Oh, I just love 
Spring-beauties! But I'm sorry my nice rose- 
moss is pursley. Is it. Papa! Is it really a 
sister to that ugly weed?" 

' ' Suppose you bring a branch of each over to 
the bench here— one with flowers on it." 

Prue brought a sprig of her precious rose- 
moss, and Davy a large piece of the pursley 
from the pile he had just cut down. The Chief 
Gardener took them and put them together. 

' ' You see, they are a good deal alike, ' ' he said, 
'Hhough the leaves are different— Miss Por- 
tulaca 's being the finer. ' ' 

Then he took one of the tiny pursley flowers 
and put it under the magnifying-glass, and let 
the children look. Yes, it was almost exactly 

14—^ Little Garden Calendar 203 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



like the beautiful flower of the rose-moss, only 
smaller. Each flower had two green sepals and 
five colored petals, also five stamens, so they 
knew it was an exogen, though it would have 
been harder to tell this from the thick, pulpy 
leaves and stem. The little seed-pod of each 
had a tiny cap which lifted off when the seeds 
were ripe, leaving a perfect cup, heaping 
full. 

^^You see, children," said the Chief Gar- 
dener, ^ Veeds do not care to be either useful or 
ornamental. So they become rank and com- 
mon, and lose their beautiful flowers. But 
somehow they never have any less seed. They 
want to grow just as thickly as they can, and 
however small their flowers are, the seed-pods 
are always full to the brim. ' ' 

^^Well," said Prue, ^^I'm sure there can't be 
any of my flowers relation to chickweed. I 
never can get that out of my beds." 

The Chief Gardener thought a minute. 

^^Why, yes, Prue," he said, ^ that's Cousin 

204 



JULY 



Stella; I suppose she came to see the beautiful 
Dian and to make her all the trouble she can. ' ' 

' ' Oh, Papa ! what do you mean by Stella and 
Dian?" 

^^Well, Stellaria is chickweed, and she's a 
cousin to Dianthus, your lovely pinks. I sup- 
pose you might call them Stella and Dian, for 
short. They are not very nearly related, but 
they do belong to the same family, and perhaps 
they were once more alike. I don't suppose 
beautiful Dian would own Stella, but Stella (or 
perhaps her weed friends call her Chick), is a 
great nuisance and makes Dian and her friends 
all the trouble she can. ' ' 

*^Papa,*' said Davy, who had been silent all 
this time, **are there really any plant families 
that don't have wild members who behave badly 
and become just weeds?" 

don't remember any real weeds in the Lily 
family, Davy, though almost any plant will be- 
come a weed if allowed to run wild and live in 
fence corners, like a tramp. They become 

205 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



prodigals then, like the man's son in the Bible. 
And sometimes they come back to the garden, 
as the prodigal son did, to become well-behaved 
and useful flowers again. Of course, there are 
many others that have always lived wild in the 
woods and fields, and are not called weeds, be- 
cause they do not spread and destroy other 
plants. These are our wild flowers, and the 
world would be poor, indeed, without them. 
Sometimes we bring them into the garden, and 
make them grow larger and call them by a new 
name. And sometimes, I am sorry to say, a 
sweet wild flower will suddenly spread and over- 
run the fields and become almost a weed. I am 
afraid our beautiful daisies are becoming a weed 
to a good many farmers. Those fields that are 
like banks of snow, and so beautiful to us, must 
worry the man who owns them and cannot get 
rid of the millions of ^rare Marguerites!' " 
Little Prue sighed. 

^^Oh, dear," she said, "iVs just too bad that 
there isn't some flower, or somebody, or some- 

206 



JULY 

thing that can be just every bit good, all the 
time, to everybody." 

The Chief Gardener smiled. 

^^We can only do our very best," he said. 



207 



AUGUST 



AUGUST 



I 



THERE ARE JUST TWO KINDS OF LEAVES 

GOOD many things were ripe in August, 



JLv. and some of the things were through 
blooming. Prue did not plant a great 
deal. It was too hot to dig long in the sun, and 
then there did not seem to be much in the way 
of flowers that could be planted so late. Davy 
planted a few turnips and some late beans and 
salad, because there was time for these, but even 
Day\^ found it pleasanter to sit in the shade, 
where there was a breeze, and pull plants to 
pieces and talk about Exogens and Endogens 
and the different parts of things, than to hoe and 
dig and rake on an August day. 




211 



AUGUST 



The Chief Gardener heard quite loud voices 
under the peacli-trees, one warm afternoon. 
Prue and Davy were not really quarreling, but 
they seemed to be a good deal in earnest about 
something. The Chief Gardener went over 
there. 

^^What is all the excitement!" he asked. 

Davy held up and waved a large stem of very 
coarse grass. 

^^It's an Endogen," he said, very decidedly, 
^4sn't it, Papal" 

^^It isn't at all, is it, Papal" eagerly asked 
little Prue. 

The Chief Gardener took the plmney stem and 
sat down. 

^^A^^y do you think it is an Endogen, Davy?" 
he asked. 

Because it's a grass, and belongs to the grass 
family. And corn belongs to the grass family, 
too, and corn is an Endogen, for it has a big 
pith instead of rings. So if corn is an Endogen, 
grass is, too." 

212 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



The Chief Gardener smiled. 

''Well, that's pretty good, Davy, and is true 
enough, but it isn't just the best way to reason. 
Xow, Prue, why did you think it was an Exo- 
gen r ' 

''Because the stem is hollow, and makes a 
ring when you cut off a little slice of it, and 
because the bloom part is in five pieces. ' ' 

"Shari3 eyes," nodded the Chief Gardener, 
"but Davy is right. There is not always a pith 
in the endogens. Pipe-stems and fish-poles are 
hollow, but the cane we make them of is an 
Endogen, too. And as for the bloom part of this 
grass, it is a sort of a tassel, like that of the 
corn. The real blooms are very tiny— too small 
for us to examine. And then, perhaps, some 
insect or bird has nipped some of it away. I 
think I must tell you a little more about leaves, 
so Davy won't have to know that grass is an 
Endogen because corn is, and so you won't be 
mistaken. Suppose, Davy, you try to tell me 
how many kinds of leaves there are." 

213 



AUGUST 



Davj looked quite helpless. 

'*It would take a hundred years," he said. 

^'T\liy. no/' said Prne. There are just two 
kinds, Exogens and Endogens. ' ' 

Davy laughed, and the Chief Gardener 
laughed with him. 

^'But you are right, Prue, in one way," he 
said. "There are just two kinds of leaves- 
simple and compound. A simple leaf is a leaf 
of just one blade, like a grass leaf, or the leaf 
of a morning-glory. A compound leaf is a leaf 
made up of several blades, like a bean leaf, which 
you know is divided into three parts. Of course, 
there are hundreds of shapes and thousands of 
species of leaves, but there are just two great 
kinds, simple and compound. Suppose, Da^y, 
you look about and bring me three compound 
leaves, and you. Prue. try to find three simple 
leaves, and let's see what they are." 

The children jumjDed up quickly, and wan- 
dered out into the sunny garden, looking as they 
went. The Chief Gardener heard them chat- 

214 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



ting, as they looked this way and that. Pres- 
ently they returned with what they had found. 
Little Prue climbed up in his lap. 

^^Look at mine first!" she said, holding them 
out, and fanning herself with her little hat. 

Davy sat down by them, and looked his col- 
lection over to be sure they were right. 

^^Well, Prue, let's see what you have," began 
the Chief Gardener. ^'One peach leaf— that's 
simple enough. Then here's a lily leaf— that's 
simple, too. But what's this? It looks as if it 
came from a Virginia creeper. But where 's the 
rest of it ? That 's only part of a leaf. ' ' 

I told Prue that, ' ' said Davy, ' ' and I brought 
a whole one for one of my compound leaves." 

Davy held up what he had brought. The 
Chief Gardener took the stem of the Virginia 
creeper. Branching from it were five little 
stems with a small leaf on each. Prue had 
taken one of these to be a complete leaf, when it 
was really only a part of one compound leaf 
divided into five parts. 

215 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



'^You see, Prue, there is only one stem that 
joins the main stalk," explained the Chief Gar- 
dener. ' ' Whatever branches out from that stem 
is a part of that leaf. What else have you 
brought, Davy?'^ 

Davy held up a blackberry leaf, and the leaf 
of a tomato. 

Those are both right," said the Chief Gar- 
dener. ^^The blackberry has three parts like 
the bean, and the tomato has a good many parts. 
There are some leaves that are compounded as 
many as four times— each little stem being com- 
pounded over and over until there are hundreds 
of little parts, and yet all are connected with 
the main leaf -stem which joins the stalk or 
branch, making really only one leaf. Of course, it 
is not always easy to tell about leaves, any more 
than about flowers. Sometimes shapes are so 
peculiar that it is almost impossible to tell just 
what they are. Pine-needles are leaves, but it 
is hard to tell whether they are simple or com- 
pound, and it would be hard to tell whether the 

216 



AUGUST 



pine was an Exogen or an Endogen if we had 
only the needles to go by." 

' ' But you haven 't told us how to tell that by 
the leaves at all," said Dav)^ ^^That is what 
we started to find out." 




SOME SIMPLE LEAVES 



'^That's so, Davy. It's hard to keep to the 

subject in botany. There are so many things, 

and all so interesting." 

The Chief Gardener took up the lily leaf and 

217 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



that of the blackberry, and held them up to the 
light. 

' ' Do you see the difference T ' he asked. 
^^Why, yes," said Prue, ''the blackberry is 

all criss-crossy, and the 
lih" leaf runs straight 
and smooth. ' ' 

' ' Those are the veins, ' ' 
said Davy; " I heard 
Mamma sav so." 

''Yes, they are the 
veins, ' ' nodded the Chief 
Gardener, ' ' and when 
they form a network, or 
run criss-crossy, as Prue 
says, it means that the 
plant is an Exogen. 
When they run side by 
side smoothly, as they do in corn and grass, it 
means that the plant is an Endogen. There are 
a few of both kinds which do not quite follow this 
rule, like the pine-tree, which is an Exogen, but 

218 




PINE-NEEDLES ARE LEAVES 



AUGUST 



has its little straight-grained needles, or like 
smilax, which has netted leaves, but is an 
Endogen. ' ' 

n 

SOMETIMES I THINK PLANTS CAN SEE AND HEAR 

It was about a week after this that Davy and 
Prue came to the Chief Gardener with their 
hands filled with leaves. 

^^We want you to tell us about them," they 
said. ' ' There is a lot of kinds and shapes, and 
some we can't tell whether they are simple or 
compound, or anything." 

The Chief Gardener looked over their collec- 
tion. 

^^Well, " he said, ^^I am afraid you are get- 
ting ahead too fast. It would take a real sure- 
enough botanist to tell all about these leaves." 

Da^^ picked up a daisy leaf. 

'^Is that simple or compound?" he asked. 

^^It's mostly ribs," laughed the Chief Gar- 

15— .4 Little Garden Calendar 2ig 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



dener. There really isn't much leaf about a 
daisy leaf, but what there is of it is simple, 
only it is so cut and sprangiy that it might al- 
most be called a compound leaf." 

They looked at many others in the collection, 
and the Chief Gardener explained as far as he 
could. 

^*You will learn all the names of the different 
shapes some day," he said, '^but it is too much 
for little folks. I suppose, though, you might 
remember the parts of a leaf. They are the 
blade, the stem, and the stipules. ' ' 

' ' This is the blade, and this is the stem, ' ' said 
Daw^ ^'but what are stipules?" 

The Chief Gardener picked up a red clover 
leaf, and pointed to a little thin pale-green husk 
where the stem joined the main stalk. 

Those are stipules," he said. ^^In the 
clover they grow together, as one. The stipules 
are a part of the outside of the leaf-bud. When 
the bud opens, and the leaf goes out into the 
world, the stipules stay behind. Sometimes they 

220 



AUGUST 

* 

are like little leaves, and take up air for the 
plant, just as the leaves do. Sometimes they 
almost take the place of leaves, and are quite 
large. Sometimes they are very tiny, and some 
plants have no stipules at all. ' ^ 




THERE IS A LOT OF KINDS AND SHAPES^* 



^^But leaves have veins, too,'' said Davy. 
Those are parts of the blade. The blade 
has ribs— they make a framework which holds it 
together; also veins — the fine threads which 
help to carry the sap. You see, plants are a 

221 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



good deal like ourselves, and live much in the 
same way. Some leaves have only one strong 
rib through the center— a sort of a backbone. 
Some have as many as six or seven. ' ' 

They talked about these things, and looked 
at the different leaves and stems. Then they 
spoke of the stalks of different plants, and the 
Chief Gardener explained how the tender stalk 
of the lowliest plant, that of the tall twining 
vine, and the trunk of the giant oak, were all one 
one and the same, only different in kind. Each 
came at some time from a tiny seed. Each put 
forth buds and leaves and branches. Each was 
made to withstand the storm— the oak by its 
strength, the vine by its fast hold on the wall 
or lattice, the tender plant through its lowliness. 

'^Oh,'' said Davy suddenly, ^^that makes me 
think of something. Our Virginia creeper on 
the front lattice has three ways to climb. 

^^Wliat are they, Davyr' 

^^Why, it twists, for one way.'' 
Twines, you mean." 

222 



AUGUST 



^^Yes, twines, and then it has little curlers, 
like a grape-vine. ' ' 

'^Tendrils, they are called, Davy.'* 

^^And little dingers, like an ivy." 

'^Feet, you should say. Yes, I have noticed 
that. A lattice is not very well suited to a Vir- 
ginia creeper, and ours has to try every way 
known to vines, to hold on. I have never 
known all three ways on one vine before. But 
vines are very curious things. Sometimes I 
think they can see and hear. I know they can 
feel, for a honeysuckle shoot will grow per- 
fectly straight until it touches something that 
can be climbed. Then it will begin to twist so 
fast you can almost see it. ' ' 

^^But why do you think they can see and 
hear?" asked little Prue. 

'^I don't know that I do really think so, but 
I have tried every way I can think of to keep 
those morning-glories of yours from running up 
my little pear-tree. I have pushed them away, 
and tied them away, and I have even cut some of 

223 



A LITTLE 



GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



them away. But if I turn my back for a day^ 
or even a half a day, there is one of them start- 
ing up the stalk, or, at least, reaching out for 
it as hard as ever it can. ' ' 

Little Prue laughed, and ran over to see. 
Yes, there it was— -a fuzzy green shoot half-way 
up the little pear-tree, and three more reaching 
out in the same direction. 

^^A vine will grow in the direction of a tree 
or shrub, if it is half way across the garden 
from it. Whether it hears or sees, or, perhaps, 
smells it, I do not know. Some vines will turn 
out of their way for a drink." 

^^For a drink! Oh, Papa!" 

^^Yes, certain melon vines. In dry weather 
they will turn to find a pan of water set several 
feet away. I suppose they can sense the mois- 
ture from it." 

The children talked the rest of the afternoon 
about these curious things. They found where 
a scarlet runner had traveled several feet 
through the grass to reach a peach-tree, and had 

224 



AUGUST 



climbed far up into its branches. Then Davy 
happened to remember the story about the vines 
which the Chief Gardener had told them during 
the winter, and told it all over to little Prue— . 
how the honeysuckle had laughed at the scarlet 
runner and the morning-glory, and had been 
punished by being made to twine to the left, 
away from the sun, instead of to the right, 
toward it, like the morning-glory and the bean. 
So the happy summer day passed, and in the 
cool of the evening big Prue came out to watch 
the sun go down, and in the pleasant arbor they 
all had tea together. 

Ill 

THERE ARE PLANTS WHICH DO NOT BLOOM 

But during the last two weeks of August tha 
Chief Gardener and big Prue and little Prue 
and Dav^^ all went to the seashore, which was 
not far away. They lived in a pretty cottage 
near the beach, and there were meadows behind 

225 



A LITTLE 



GARDEN 



CALL X D A R 



that stretched away to the blue hills. Davy and 
Prue loved the sea, with all its curious shells 
and star-fishes and other wonderful creatures. 
They loved the white sand, where they found 
these things, and where the great waves bil- 
lowed and broke over them when they bathed 
on hot afternoons. They loved the meadows, 
too, for here there were birds building iu the 
grass, and flowers unlike any in their gardens, 
and little streams of clear water that went sing- 
ing to the sea. 

It was when they came from the meadow one 
afternoon, that they hurried to the Chief Gar- 
dener with tlie little basket which thev alwavs 
carried. 

*'AYe hrve found some things,'' said Da^7', 
*'and want you to look at them." 

The Chief Gardener took the basket. On top 
were some mushrooms— two kinds. One had 
whity-brown tops, and was pink or brown or 
almost black underneath, while the other had 
yellow tops with wliito spots on them, and was 

226 



AUGUST 



very pale underneath. The Chief Gardener 
looked sharply at the children when he saw these 
yellow mushrooms. 

*^Go and wash your hands, quickly," he said, 
^^and I hope neither of you have put your hands 
to your mouth since you touched these." 

haven't," said Davy, *^and I picked the 
yellow ones." 

^^They are deadly poison," said the Chief 
Gardener, ''they are called the Amanita, and 
even to touch the tongue with your fingers after 
handling them might make you very ill. The 
others are meadow mushrooms and harmless. 
But even they could not be eaten after being in 
the basket with the Amanitas." 

The children ran to wash their hands, and 
were presently back to ask questions. Mean- 
time the Chief Gardener had found a lot of 
beautiful moss and feras in the bottom of 
the basket, and some lichens, which the chil- 
dren had gathered from a rocky cliff not far 
away. 

227 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



*'Papa, aren't mushrooms toad-stools, and 
don't they build them to sit on, in pleasant 
weather, and to get under, when it rains I ' ' 

This was little Prue, and she was quite ex- 
cited. 

''1 think they are some kind of plants,'' said 
Davy, ''but I don't see where the flowers are, or 
how they make seeds. ' ' 

''How about the ferns f" asked the Chief Gar- 
dener. "Did you find any flowers on the 
ferns!" 

"No, but we found seeds." 

Davy turned one of the fern leaves over, and, 
sure enough, there were a lot of little brown 
seeds under the ends of some of the leaflets. 
Then the Chief Gardener turned over one of 
the meadow mushrooms, and divided the little 
layers beneath with the tip of his pencil. 

"That is where the mushroom keeps its seeds, 
too," he said. "We do not call them seeds, 
though, but spores. Fern seeds are called 
spores, also." 

228 



AUGUST 



"But toads do sit under mushrooms, don't 
they ? ' ' insisted little Prue. 

^^Why, yes, I suppose a great many toads 
have done that, but they are really plants, as 
Davy says.'' 

Davy had become thoughtful. 

^^Are they Exogensf" he asked, '^or Endo- 
gens? I should think the mushrooms might be 
Endogens from their stems, and the fern Exo- 
gens from their leaves." 

^^Well, Davy, that is very well said, but they 
are really neither one. They belong to a great 
class of their own. Exogens and Endogens are 
only the two kinds of flowering plants. These 
mushrooms and ferns and mosses and lichens 
all belong to the flowerless plants, and are called 
Crip-tog-a-mous— a very long word, which I do 
not expect you to remember. The divisions 
of flowerless plants are too hard a study for 
little folks, but the plants are all very interest- 
ing, and we can gather them, and see how 

they grow. In fact, I think we will have to 

229 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



call our meadow and our beach your August 
garden. ' ' 

*^But there isn't anything on the beach," said 
Prue. 

^'How about all that seaweed you were gath- 
ering yesterday ? ' ' 

^ ' But does that really grow like our plants on 
the shore?" asked Davy. 

**Very much the same, and it belongs to the 
flowerless class, too, along with the mosses and 
lichens and ferns and mushrooms. It has 
spores instead of seeds, and is really a sort of a 
moss of the sea." 

'*0h, call us not weeds, we are flowers of the sea, 
For lovely and bright and fresh-tinted are we/' 

sang little Prue, with a memory of her kinder- 
garten. 

^'Yes, they are flowers of the sea, though they 

do not bloom," said the Chief Gardener, ^^and 

are very beautiful in color and form. I will 

give you some white cards and you can gather 

230 



AUGUST 



specimens to dry. You spread out the little 
branches with a tooth-pick, and the cards make 
pretty little books afterwards." 

^^But do seaweeds and mosses and lichens 
and ferns and mushrooms all belong to one 
family?" asked Davy. 

^^Oh, by no means. Not even all to the same 
division of flowerless plants. But it is too hard 
a study for a little boy, and it is enough to learn 
now that they do all belong to the big flowerless 
or Crip-tog-a-mous class." 

^^Papa, is it true that if you put fern seeds 
in your shoes, nobody can see you!" asked little 
Prue. 

^^Why, I don't very well see how 'nobody^ 
could see you, but I think somebody might." 

^^It says in my fairy book that the princess 
put fern seed in her shoe, and then there wasn't 
any one who could see her. I wish it was like 
that. I'm going to try it," and the little girl 
pulled off some of the brown spores and tucked 
them in her dusty ties. 

231 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



''Can you see me I Can you see me, now?'' 
she asked, dancing about. 

''Why, no,'' said the Chief Gardener, who 
pretended to be looking for her in another 
direction. 

' ' Can you, Davy ? Can you see me 

' ' Not very well, when you go so fast, ' ' laughed 
Davy. Stand still, and let me try." 

Just then big Prue came out on the porch, 
and little Prue danced up to her. 

' ' Can you see me ? Can you see me. Mamma ? 
You mustn't, you know, because I've got fern 
seed in my shoe. ' ' 

Big Prue shut her eyes, and put out her arms. 

''No, I can't see you," she said, '^but you 
feel like the same little girl," and she kissed the 
little round tanned face on her shoulder. 

IV 

THE PRINCESS BY THE SEA 

' ' I HEARD you talking about flowerless plants, ' ' 

big Prue went on, "as I sat there by the win- 

232 



AUGUST 



dow. I wonder if you would like to hear a 
little story of how they came to be without 
flowers. ' ' 

Please, yes!" and little Prue forgot her fern 
seed and hugged closer. 

^ ^ Well, once upon a time there was a princess 
with a beautiful garden—" 

^*Is this the same princess that turned into a 
red rose!" 

' ' Oh, no, this is another princess. There have 
been a great many princesses with gardens. 
This princess lived by the sea, where there was 
a meadow, and a cliff not far away, much like it 
is here. She loved her flowers more than any- 
thing in the world, and her garden was so beau- 
tiful that even the fairies loved it better than 
their own gardens of fairyland and came at 
midnight to dance in the moonlight, after the 
princess was asleep. 

^^And the princess knew that they danced 
there, for once a gentle fairy had come to her 
and told her of it, and warned her never to try 

233 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



to see them, for whoever sees the fairies dance 
by the midnight moon may meet with some 
dreadful misfortune, which even the fairies 
themselves cannot help. 

'^But when the princess heard about the fairy 
dance, she wanted to see it very much. Instead 
of trying to forget it and going to bed before it 
began, she thought of it all the time, and the 
more she thought, the more she made up her 
mind to see it, no matter what might happen 
afterwards. 

^^So one night, just before twelve o'clock, she 
crept into a large cluster of blooming ferns—" 

^^But ferns do not bloom—" 

' ' They did then, and their sweet odor filled the 
still night air; the moon was white and round 
in the sky, and the level sea had a path of 
glory that led close to where she lay. 

^'The princess thought how beautiful was all 
the world, and especially her garden, and she 
grew sad to think that perhaps some time she 
would not be there to see it all. And then all 

234 



AUGUST 



at once she forgot everything else, for there in 
the moonlight were the fairies, dancing in a 
great glittering ring. 

^^The princess looked, hardly daring to 
breathe. Then it seemed to her that she could 
not see so well. She rubbed her eyes, but the 
world about her only grew dimmer still. She 
thought the moon had gone under a cloud, but 
it was sailing high in the sky. And then every- 
thing faded out, the world became dark and the 
princess gave a great cry of grief, for she knew 
that her punishment had come, and she was 
blind! 

''The fairies heard the cry, too, and vanished, 
but the gentle little fairy who was her friend 
came and guided her in sorrow to her palace, 
and said, can grant you one wish, but it must 
not be to see again— that I cannot grant.' 

^Then,' said the princess, 4f I cannot see 
my flowers, I wish that they may never bloom 
again until some one, who cares more for them 
than I, shall wish to see them/ 

16— A LUUe Qavden C'aUndar 235 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 

^*Aiid the wish came true. Never a flower in 
the garden of the princess bloomed from that 
day. Their buds dropped, their leaves shrank, 
and many of them hid away where they would 
not be seen by passers-by. Some slipped away 
into the water and became seaweeds. Some 
hid in the deep woods, and crept into dark 
places, and became ferns. Others, growing 
smaller each year, became moss. Some hid 
among the rocks of the cliff and became lichens. 
And some, who wanted to be useful if they could 
not bloom, scattered themselves over the woods 
and fields and became mushrooms. But some 
of these were of bitter or sharp nature, and these 
we cannot eat. And some grew wicked and 
vicious, and these are poison. One of them, 
the Amanita, which had bloomed as a great 
golden white-spotted flower in the garden of 
the princess, became the most vicious of all. 
It kept much of its color, which now makes 
people shun it because it is a sign of deadly 
poison." 

236 



AUGUST 



* * And will the flowers that grew in the garden 
of the princess never bloom again ? ' ' 

''Never, unless some one who cares more for 
them than she did shall wish to see them.'^ 

' ' But how can I care so much unless I can see 
them?" asked little Prue. 

''Perhaps that is why they will never bloom 
again," said Davy. 



237 



SEPTEMBER 



SEPTEMBER 



I 



A FLOWER REALLY HAS CLOTHES 

HE little gardens were in quite a bad way 



1 when Davy and Prue came back from the 
seashore. Everything had done well, 
even to the weeds, and that was just the trouble. 
It took two whole days, working when the sun 
was not so very hot, to get the beds in shape, and 
the Chief Gardener had to work, too, very hard. 
But by and by everything was clean and beau- 
tiful again, and the seat under the peach-tree 
was a finer place than ever, because there were 
more things in bloom, and everything had be- 
come more beautiful. 

One day Davy came to the seat, where little 




A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 

Prue and the Chief Gardener were resting, with 
a double carnation in his hand. 

' ' I wish you would look at this, ' ' he said. ' ' I 
can't tell petals from stamens." 

The Chief Gardener took the flower, and 
slowly pulled it to pieces. 

' ' Well, no, ' ' he said ; ^ ^ it isn 't the easiest thing 
to do, though, of course, those anther-looking 
things must belong to stamens." 

''But the filaments are like petals," objected 

Daw. 

«/ 

''Yes, and here are others like them, though 
they have no anthers. Those are supposed to 
be stamens, too, or, at least, they were stamens, 
once. ' ' 

Davy looked puzzled. 

"You remember I told you once, Davy, that 
a flower was only cue form of a leaf— a leaf in- 
tended to make the plant beautiful, and to make 
it bear seed. Well, in some plants, especially 
cultivated ones, the flower-leaves seem to get 

rather mixed in their parts." 

242 



SEPTEMBER 



The Chief Gardener picked a scarlet canna 
that grew near. 

^ ' Here is a flower which has three little petals 
and four large flower-leaves which you would 
think were petals, wouldn't you? But the 
stamens and petals and sepals are so mixed that 
even botanists can hardly decide which is which. 
In a water-lily, too, the petals gradually become 
stamens, so, perhaps, the leaf came first, ages and 
ages ago, and little by little it has changed, first 
to sepals, then petals, then to stamens and pistils, 
so that it could make seeds and scatter them to 
the wind. Gardeners make double flowers out 
of single ones by a process of turning stamens 
and even pistils into petals. The double flower 
is sometimes very beautiful, but it is not the 
most perfect flower. The wild rose is more per- 
fect than the finest double American Beauty. 
Perhaps double flowers came before single 
ones, a long time ago, when the leaves were 
turning to blossoms, so that the gardeners who 
make the wonderful double blooms now are 

-243 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



really going backward instead of forward. 
But that is all too hard, I'm afraid— especially 
for a little girl who likes very double carna- 
tions." 

^^I know everything you're talking about, 
just as well as Da\^^ does," said the little girl, 
sitting up quite straight. ^^And I like single 
flowers, 'specially lilies, and wild roses; but I 
think double flowers are nice, too, because they 
seem dressed up, like folks— queens and prin- 
cesses, all with nice dresses— velvet and chiffon 
and lacey stuff. ' ' 

^^Wliy, that is just what they are, Prue. 
They are dressed up, and, of course, the more 
anything, or anybody, is dressed up the less they 
are really like themselves. The petals and 
sepals of a flower are really fine clothes, you 
know, just as you sometimes play they are, when 
you make hollyhock dolls, and it wears them for 
just about the same reason that we wear ours. 
It might grow and be useful without them, but 
it would not be very attractive, and some of its 

244 



SEPTEMBER 



friends and servants might pass by without see- 
ing it." 

'^Servants! But flowers don't really have 
servants. That must be just a story." 

*^No— at least, it is all very true. Flowers 
are like people in very many ways. Thej' really 
have ser^^ants and friends, and some of them 
live off other flowers and plants, and some of 
them eat and sleep, very much as we do. I will 
tell you something about that another time." 

II 

THE FLOWER HAS MANY SERVANTS 

It was about a week after this that little Prue 
was picking some sweet-pease for the table when 
Davy came along with the Chief Gardener. 

^^The servants are busy this morning," said 
the Chief Gardener. 

'^Do you mean me?" asked little Prue. **I 
am trying to pick some flowers, but there are 
so many bees around that I'm afraid." 

245 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



Those are the servants I mean. I do not 
think they will hurt yon if yon are careful. 
They are only collecting their wages, and work- 
ing at the same time. ' ' 

Davy and Prue looked close. 

^ ' What do you mean by their working? ' ' asked 
Davy. *^Do you mean for the flower, or for 
themselves ! " 

^'For both. Watch this bee. You see, he 
pushes open the flower for honey, but to get it 
he has to cover his legs with the pollen from the 
anthers, which are placed down in this little 
lower part called a keel, just where his legs and 
body will be covered. Then he comes out and 
goes to another flower and carries this pollen, 
and really rubs it on the stigma there as he 
crawls in and out, and takes more pollen, and 
so goes on from one to another— a real servant, 
doing a real duty and getting his pay as he 
goes." 

'^But he doesn't have to do it. The pollen 

would fall on the stigma anyway, wouldn't it!" 

246 



SEPTEMBER 



**It might with the sweet-pea, but even if it 
did, the pollen from the same flower is not as 
good as the pollen from another flower from a 
different plant, and the seed would be poor and 
the plants would grow weaker every year. There 
are many insects that act as servants to the 
flowers, and the wind is one of the servants, too. 
It shakes the corn-tassel so that the pollen falls 
on the silk and makes the ear, and it carries the 
pollen of onp stalk to the silk of another —some- 
times from one field to another." 

^ ' But, of course, the bee doesn 't know that he 
does it," said Prue, who was still very intently 
watching the little servants of the sweet-pease. 

*^Lam not so certain of that," the Chief Gar- 
dener said musingly. ^^The flower must know, 
for it dresses in bright colors so that the bee 
may see it, and offers honey as pay for his work. 
And if the flower knows, why shouldn't the 
bee?" 

*^But don't you think it might all just happen 
so?" asked Davy. 

247 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



don't think anything in nature just ^hap- 
pens so,' Davy, and I am sure that the bee's 
work for the flower doesn't, for there are too 
many flowers that would have no seed and 
would die out if it were not for the bees that 
carry the pollen, and most of these flowers have 
grown just to fit in every way the especial little 
bee, or big bee, or insect, that comes to work for 
them. There are some flowers, like the sweet- 
pea, that the bee cannot get into without getting 
pollen on his legs, and there are others that 
drop it upon his back. Some flowers have 
stamens that wither before the pistil is ready 
for the pollen. In such flowers the little serv- 
ants go from one to the other— from a new 
flower to an old one— carrying the pollen which 
would not be of any use in the flower where it 
grew. ' ' 

And is that really all that the flower's pretty 
color and sweet smell and delicious honey are 
for?" asked little Prue, ^^just to get bees to 
work for it?" 

248 



SEP T E M B E R 



''No, Prue, I don't think so. I think all the 
world of nature is harmony, like sweet music, 
and the flowers with their beauty and sweet- 
ness are part of it, but I think tliat just as 
we may attract friends and good servants by 
kindness and offering something in return, so 
the flowers attract the bees and butterflies, and 
even a little girl and boy to keep the weeds away. 
The more a flower depends on an insect to carry 
its pollen, the gayer or sweeter that flower al- 
ways is. The orchids, whi(»h are almost the 
finest flowers in tlie world, seem to be made 
especially for the insects, and they could not 
do without tliem, any more than the insects 
could do without the flowers." 

''And is that what makes some flowers such 
funny shapes, too?" 

"I think it is. The foxglove, and the horse- 
mint, and many others, have curious shapes 
and forms, just to fit their little helpers, and 
the milkweed has a funny little saddle-bag which 
it hangs to the bee's feet, so that he can carry 

249 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



it to another plant. There is another kind of a 
milkweed which is very cruel, for it attracts 
small insects by its odor, and when they come 
they are caught by a sticky substance and held 
until the weed sucks them down and really eats 
them, much as we eat our food. So, you see, 
plants are a good deal like people, just as I told 
you the other day. " 

*^You said they could sleep, too.'' 

*^Yes, your rose-moss closes up every night, 
shuts its eyes just as you do, and rests. Many 
flowers close at night, and some even droop their 
heads quite low, like the bird, which sleeps with 
its head beneath its wing. " 

III 

A FLOWER MAY REALLY REASON 

How beautiful was the September garden! 

The wild sunflowers were all in bloom like a 

wall of gold. A bunch of black-eyed Susans at 

the corner of the house seemed trying to imitate 

250 



SEPTEMBER 



its large cousins, and was just as bright and 
yellow, too, in a small way. The little Susans 
had not been planted, but had strayed in out of 
the field somewhere, perhaps longing to be with 
people. A row of bright red cockscombs made a 
crimson line of plumes down one side of a gar- 
den-path, and just beyond them Davy's third 
planting of beans was in full bearing. Prue's 
pinks and sweet-pease bloomed on and on, and 
her alyssums and the other sweets became 
sweeter every day. 

^*Do you think all these things like to be to- 
gether?" Prue asked, one afternoon, as thej^ sat 
looking at them from the shade of the peach- 
tree. 

^ ' I think those that grow well do, ' ' said Davy. 
* ' They seem to, anj^ay . ' ' 

'^And they do, Davy," said the Chief Gar- 
dener. ' ' A plant that doesn 't like a place will not 
grow in it, and in the woods and fields we only 
find those plants together which like that par- 
ticular spot. Down below the hillside yonder 

17— .4 Little Garden Calendar 25 1 



A LITTLE GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



you will find golden-rod and several kinds of 
tall blue and white daisies and grasses that all 
belong there, and seem very happy together. 
They would not grow well in the wet woods, and 
would soon die out, but there are other plants 
that grow and tangle and are happiest where the 
ground is damp and the shade overhead. So, you 
see, there we have another way that plants are 
like people— they have their proper company, 
and, perhaps, their societies and friendships. I 
am sure they have their friendships, for there are 
certain little plants, and big ones, too, that you 
will nearly always find together. Violets and 
spring-beauties and adder-tongues must love 
each other, I am sure, for you seldom see one 
without the others, and there are certain vines, 
like the Virginia creeper and the poison-ivy, that 
are nearly always together, though why the Vir- 
ginia creeper should care for the poison-ivy I 
don't see. Perhaps it doesn't seem poison to 
the creeper, but only to us." 

V^It seemed poison enough to me," said Davy, 

252 



SEPTEMBER 



^Vhen I got a dose of it last year. It nearly 
itched me to death." 

. ^^Yes, it is terrible stuff, and little folks, and 




"BEWARE OF THE VINE WITH THE THREE-PART LEAF** 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



big ones, too, have to be very careful, for it 
looks very much like its friend, the creeper, only 
that its compound leaf is divided into three 
parts instead of five. You can always tell by 
that, and you must always beware of the vine 
ivith the three-part leaf/' 

^*Do poison-ivy and Virginia creeper belong 
to the same family?'' asked Davj^ 

^^No, though they look so much alike. The 
poison-ivy belongs to the Sumach family, while 
the creeper belongs to the Grape family. The 
families are quite close together, but are sepa- 
rate. Often members of different families are 
better friends than members of the same family, 
and that is still another way that plants are like 
people." 

^ ^ Do you suppose the poison-ivy knows that it 
is poison ? ' ' asked Prue, who liked to believe that 
plants were really just like people. 

Perhaps it does. We can never be quite 
sure how much a plant knows. I told you once 
how I believed thev could feel and hear, and 

254 



SEPTEMBER 



even see. I am almost sure that the dandelion 
can reason." 

Davy looked interested, and the Chief Gar- 
dener went on. 

^^You will remember, Davy, how when the 
dandelions first bloomed they had quite tall 
stems. Then we mowed the lawn, and when they 
tried to bloom again the stems were shorter. We 
mowed again, and the stems grew still shorter, 
and so they became shorter and shorter each 
time, until they bloomed flat against the ground, 
so low that we could not mow them. They were 
bound to bloom, and they did bloom, and then 
all at once almost in a day they shot up long 
pale stems with balls of white-winged seeds that 
were ready when we mowed again to float away 
at a touch or a puff, to be ready to sprout and 
grow another year. The dandelion is bound to 
spread its seed. By and by it learns that the 
lawn-mower cannot cut below a certain level. 
So it blooms below the lawn-mower's cutting- 
wheel, and then when it is ready to seed, it pops 

255 



A 



LITTLE GARDEN 



C A L E X D A R 



up as high as ever it can, and stands waiting 
for the mower to come around and help scatter 
its seed. Perhaps it doesn't really reason, but 
it does something exactly like it, and there are 




THE DANDELION IS BOUND TO SPREAD ITS SEED 



people in the world who would be happier if 
they could do the same thing." 

And just then big Prue came out into the 

256 



SEPTEMBER 



garden, and they all sat on the bench nnder the 
peach-tree, and watched the sun going down, 




"SO IT BLOOMS BELOW THE LAWN-MOWER' S CUTTING-WHEEL** 



away off over the purple hills. And they 
thought how the summer was nearly over, and 

257 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



how soon the glory of the little garden would 
be fading, and how the snow would be sifting 
down among the withered leaves. 

IV 

SOME FLOWEES LIVE OFF OTHER FLOWERS AND 

PLANTS 

So summer with its song and its blossom came 
to an end. Autumn clad in gold and purple 
came across the land, and the gentle haze of 
Indian summer lay upon the fields. From the 
banks of golden-rod below the hill, Prue and 
Davy filled jars and vases, and one day they 
brought in great bunches all linked and bound 
together with something like a tangle of golden 
thread. 

The Chief Gardener was not at home that 
day, so they brought their discovery to big Prue 
to explain. 

^^Why," she said, ^Hhat is dodder, or love- 
vine. It is what is called a parasite, for it has 

258 



SEPTEMBER 



no root in the ground, but lives from the plant it 
grows on." 

Then she showed them where the small, tough 
little rootlets were really embedded in the stalk 
of the golden-rod from which it drew its strength 
and life. 

^^Oh," said Prue, ^^ that is what Papa meant 
when he told us once that some flowers lived off 
other flowers and plants, just as some people 
live otf other people. " 

Big Prue nodded. ■ 

^ ^ There are a good many such plants, ' ' she 
said. ^'The mistletoe we get for Christmas 
grows on several sorts of trees. Its seed lodges 
under the bark and sprouts there, just as it 
would in the ground. Then the wood grows up 
around the root, and the mistletoe becomes al- 
most a part of the tree. Then there are many 
kinds of mosses, and the Indian pipe— that white, 
waxy flower which you found in the woods not 
long ago, and thought you had found a flowering 
mushroom. It is a sort of a relation of the 

259 



A LIT T L E GARDEN C A L E X D A R 



mushroonv for it springs from damp, decaying: 
leaves, and has no real root, but it is more of a 
parasite, for it feeds mainly on roots of living 
tiees and plants. This dodder blooms and 
drops its seeds to the ground, where they sprout, 
but as soon as it finds a weed to cling to, the root 
dies and it lives only on the weed. ' ' 

'^Why do; they call it love-vine?" asked little 
Prue. 

Her mother took the long golden tendril and 
twined it about her slender white finger. Then 
she told them the story of 

V 

THE PEINCE AND THE THREAD OF GOLD 

^^There was once a prince,'' she began, *^who 
lived in a far countrv between blue seas. And 
all the land the prince owned, and a great 
palace, but he was not happy, because there was 
a little fisher girl more beautiful than the sun- 

260 



SEPTEMBER 



rise, who would not come and dwell in his palace 
and be his princess. 

^^When this fisher girl saw the prince coming 
toward her, she would dance away laughing, like 
a ripple of sunlight on the water, and there were 
some who said she was not a real child, but a 
sea-fairy, for she had been found as a babe by 
the fisher's wife, cast up on the sand, -after a 
great storm. 

^^But the prince did not care whether she was 
a human being or not. He thought only of her, 
as each day she grew taller and always more 
beautiful. He went every morning to the fish- 
er's hut to beg that they would give her to him, 
and this they would have been glad to do had 
Dodora been willing, but always she laughed 
and danced away when they spoke of it, and 
sometimes they did not see her again until 
evening. 

^^But one morning, when she was eighteen 
years old, and they spoke to her, she said, laugh- 
ing: 

261 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



:^^^Tell the prince to tie a knot in the thread 
of love. If he will tie a knot in the thread of 
love it will hold me fast, ' and again she danced 
away, while her laugh came as the tinkle of the 
tide among the pebbles on a still evening. 

^ ' So when the prince came that day they told 
him, and he went away sadly, for he thought 
she was only playing, with him for her amuse- 
ment. 

^^But that night, as he walked alone in the 
moonlight by the shore, he suddenly saw on the 
sand in front of him a radiant fairy, spinning 
on a silver spinning-wheel a wonderful thread 
of gold. Without daring to breathe he stood 
and looked at her, and then he saw that it was 
from the rays of moonlight that she was spin- 
ning the thread. All at once she rose and came 
to where he was standing. 

'' ^Here is the thread of love,' she said to 
him, and then she showed him how to tie the 
true lover's knot in it. * With this you may win 
our Dodora,' the fairy added, and then suddenly 

262 



SEPTEMBER 



like a breath of perfume she was gone, leaving 
the thread of gold in the prince 's hands. 

^^And all that night the prince tied and retied 
the true lover's knot, as the fairy had showed 
him, and next morning he hurried with it to the 
fisherman's cottage where Dodora lived. And 
when Dodora saw him coming, she did not 
dance away as she had always done before, but 
went forward to meet him, and took his hand. 
Then suddenly she snatched the golden thread 
from him and ran, with the prince after her. 
She ran fast, but he was about to overtake her, 
when Dodora dropped the knot into „the weeds, 
and then all at once she stopped, for the won- 
derful thread had suddenly become a great 
tangle of gold that held Dodora fast, and she 
could not get away. So the prince overtook 
her, and led her to his palace, where they lived 
happily for a long time. And the thread of 
love grew as a wonderful vine that had no root 
in the earth, but twined about the weeds and 
spread over the country in many places. Some 

263 



A L I T T L E G A R D E N CALENDAR 



called it Dodora, after the princess, and this was 
changed at last to ^dodder' by those who did not 
know. Others called it golden thread, and still 
others called it love-vine, and tied true lover's 
knots in it which they threw over their shoul- 
ders on moonlight nights. If these knots grew 
they won their sweethearts. They did not al- 
ways grow, but about the palace of the prince 
the vine flourished in a golden mass, and the 
prince, never forgetting the wonderful night 
when it had been spun for him out of moon- 
beams, let it grow through all the world, to be- 
come the golden thread of love." 



264 



I 



OCTOBER 



OCTOBER 



I 

SEEDS ARE MADE TO BE PLANTED 

OCTOBER brought seedtime in the little 
garden. Many seeds had ripened dur- 
ing the summer, and Prue had already 
gathered some of the tiny black flakes from the 
opened pods of her precious pinks, and Davy 
had saved some seed pease. But October was 
the real harvest-time. The children took a lot 
of white envelopes, and upon them Davy printed 
the names of all the seeds they expected to 
gather. Into these envelopes they put carefully 
the different little black and brown and white 
seeds after they had picked and blown the husks 
all away, so, as Davy said, they would look just 
like seeds bought at the store. 

18—^ tWle Garden Calendar 267 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



And some of the seeds were big flat beans, or 
little long round beans ; and some, like the sweet- 
pease, were very round, like shot ; and some, like 
the cockscomb seeds, were tiny and shiny and 
black and so slippery that Prue lost more than 
she got in her envelope, though she got enough, 
for there is such a lot of seed on a cockscomb. 
Some seeds were in funny little pods that 
snapped when you touched them, and sent the 
little black or brown shot flying in every direc- 
tion, like a charge out of a bomb, and these had 
to be gathered very carefully. Then there were 
seeds with little wings, made to help them 
to flv, and there were seeds with little claws 
made to catch and hold on, so they would 
be carried and planted in many places. But 
these were mostly weed seeds, and were only 
gathered because they clung to the children's 
clothes, and stuck so fast that it was hard to pick 
them off. 

^^You see,'' said the Chief Gardener, who was 
watching them, ^ ' everything has a way of taking 

268 



OCTOBER 



care of itself. Just as I told you about the 
dandelion, the plants have something which is 
very much like reason, or instinct, to guide them. 
These zinnia seeds do 
not haA^e the little 
prongs, because the zin- 
nia does not need them. 
It is a garden flower, 
and the seed will be 
taken care of. But those 
brown two - pronged 
little things you are 
picking off your coat- 
sleeve came from its 
very near relation, the 
Spanish needle, which 
is a weed, and must 
look out for its own 
planting. Those wild sunflowers turn top-side 
down, and the little yellow birds that peck and 
chirp about them all day are scattering the seed 
so thickly that next spring the garden will be 

269 




THEY CLING TO EVERYTHING 
THAT passes" 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



covered with the young plants. The big tame 
sunflower doesn't take care of itself nearly so 
well. Of course, you remember how the dan- 
delion seeds go drifting on the wind, while the 
thistle-down that goes floating by is carrying 
seed to some farmer's field, or fence corner. 
Then there are the maple seeds, which have two 
wings, or keys, as they are called, and there are 
many of these key seeds that are tossed here and 
there when the wind blows. The wind and the 
birds are the servants that sow the wild seeds, 
just as the bees and butterflies helped to make 
them." 

^^But there are some thistles," said little Prue, 
'^that are not blown bv the wind. They have 
stickerv balls, and I make baskets out of 
them." 

Those are burs, a^d they are carried by 
sheep and cows, and by people. They cling to 
everything that passes. I have seen a horse's 
mane so full of them that it had to be cut off. 
The burdock is a very bad weed, and there ought 

2J0 



OCTOBER 



to be a story about it, but I suppose if there was 
one, it must have been so unpleasant that it has 
been forgotten. There are many other weeds 
ahnost as bad. There are seeds with all kinds 
of hooks and claws to grab and stick, and there 
are many that are carried in the dirt which 
clings to the feet of animals and men and even 
birds." 

' ' I should think some weeds would make their 
seeds look like flower seeds, to fool people." 

Well, that is just about what they do. There 
are cockle seeds in the wheat, and so nearly the 
same size that the threshing-machine will not 
take them out, and there are many little plants 
in the grass that have seeds so nearly like those 
of the grass itself that we are obliged to sow 
them with the grass seed. So, you see, men, too, 
become servants of the wise, persevering weeds. 
Certain beans and grains have been carried by 
water, and have been known to be brought 
across stretches of the sea to be scattered and 
planted upon a new shore. ' ' 

271 



A LITTLE GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



^'How many kinds of seeds are there?" asked 
Da\y. 

About as many as plants, Da\y." 
don't mean that. I mean how many prin- 
cipal kinds— like flowers, yon know— they are 
Exogens and Endogens." 

^'Oh, I see. Yon mean classes. TTell, I sup- 
pose we might say two. fleshy and dry. Then 
we might di^^de the dry into seeds and nuts, and 
the fleshy into fruits and vegetables. ' ' 

Da^w and Prue were both thinking. 

''I suppose my beans are dry," Da^w said at 
last. 

^'Yes, of course." 

^'But we ate them green, and they were not 
dry then." 

^^That was before they were ripe. There are 
a number of things that are fleshy when eaten 
green, that become pods or hulls when the fruit 
is really ready to gather. Of course, there are 
fruits and nuts and veo'etables that, like 
flowers, are Imrd to put in any class. Take 



OCTOBER 



the almond — yon wonld call that a nnt, of 
conrse. ' ' 

jnst love almonds," said little Prne. 

*^And aren't they nuts!" asked Davy. 

^'Yes, the almond is a nut, but you would 
hardly call the peach a nut ; yet they grow ex- 
actly alike, except that the outside of the almond 
is tough and not fit to eat. The walnut is a nut, 
too, of course, but the hull is quite fleshy, even 
after the nut is ripe ; and there are certain sorts 
of foreign plums that have a sweet kernel, so 
they are really fruit and nut in one. But I think 
we shall have to go nutting next week, and then 
we can tell more what we think about them. ' ' 

Nutting! Oh, yes, we'll go nutting!" cried 
little Prue. ^^And we'll take baskets, and 
Mamma, and stay all day and bring home just 
bushels. ' ' 

^^We must take plenty of dinner in the 
baskets," said Davy, who remembered one time 
when the dinner had been less than he thought 
it should be. So then they ran into the house 

273 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



to put away their envelopes of seeds, and to 
tell the news. 

n 

THERE ARE BITTER KUTS AND SWEET ONES 

How splendid it was in the October woods. 
Some of the trees were almost bare, some of 
them were a fine russet brown, and some were 
all crimson and gold ; and the gold was so beau- 
tiful against the blue sky that it seemed to Da^^^ 
and Prue that October, after all, might be the 
very best month of the year. 

There was a brook that wound through the 

woods. On both sides of it were bottom lands, 

and here the hickory and walnut and butternut 

trees grew. Near the hillsides there were 

groves of hazel with their brown clusters, half 

opened by the frost, ripe for gathering. Camp 

was made near the brook, and then all hurried 

to the nut-trees; the children kicking their feet 

through the rustling leaves that covered the 

274 



OCTOBER 



ground. The Chief Gardener found quite a 
large section of a young tree which he put on his 
shoulder for a battering-ram. Then he walked 
several steps, and butted one end of it against a 
tall hickory-tree, and down showered the nuts, 
clattering in the leaves— the hulls bursting and 
flying in all directions. 

Then how the children scrambled and gath- 
ered. 

Let's clear the leaves away first, next time," 
said Davy, ^^so they will be easier to find." 

And this they did, and so they went from tree 
to tree, gathering hickory-nuts, large and small, 
and walnuts, butternuts, and chestnuts, and these 
they emptied into sacks they had brought in the 
little wagon that was not hitched far away. 

By and by, Davy spied a patch of hazel, and 
each with a basket, Prue and he gathered until 
they were tired, and it was lunch-time. 

How very hungry they were ! Is there really 
anything like nutting to make a little boy and 
girl hungry? And there was plenty of luncheon, 

^75 



A LITTLE GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



this time. Davy ate until he did not care to 
get up right away, but was glad to lean back 
against a tree, and talk, while the Chief Gar- 
dener smoked and little Prue and big Prue put 
away the things, and hulled some of the hazel- 
nuts, which little Prue said seemed to be more 
hulls than nuts, for there was only about enough 
to cover the bottom of one basket when thev 
were all hulled. 

^^What makes all the nuts have such big, thick 
hulls, anyway ? ' ' she asked, as she tried to pound 
open a thorny chestnut-bur. 

* ^ I think the hulls must be to protect the young 
nuts from birds and squirrels," answered her 
mother. The trees do not like to have them 
carried off until they are quite ripe, so they hold 
them very tight and enclose them in a very tough 
shell, and the shell is very bad-tasting, too. But 
when the nuts are ripe and sweet they let go of 
them very easily, just as other seeds are 
dropped, and the hulls open and the harvest is 
ready for whoever may come to gather it. ' ' 

276 



OCTOBER 



The Chief Gardener picked up a hickory-nut 
from one of the baskets. 

^^You see, we are eating flower-pistils all the 
time, ' ^ he said. 

^^Are we? I don't believe I ever thought 
about that, ' ' said Davy. 




THREE MEMBERS OF THE ACORN FAMILY 



The Chief Gardener pointed to the little black 
tip on the top of the nut. 

^^That was once the stigma," he said. *^You 
see, it is quite like one, even now. Of course, it 
was soft then, and the pistil below was soft, too. 

277 



A 



LITTLE GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



Then as it grew it became harder and harder 
nntil the shell formed, and it was really a nut. 
The calyx hardened, and made the hull. The 
pistil and the calyx of a flower are the parts that 
last longest, but the stamens and the corolla are 
just as useful in their way. They form a separate 
flower on the nut-trees. We will have to come to 
the woods next spring when they are in bloom." 

^'Papa, don't hazelnuts and chestnuts belong 
to the same family?" asked little Prue, who had 
some of each in her chubby hands. 

Why, yes, but why did you think so, Prue?" 

^^Well, you see, they both have those white 
spots on them, and I thought mebbe it was a 
kind of family mark." 

^^Wise little head, Prue. And now what else 
is there that has the family mark— we might 
call it the family seal?" 

The children were silent a moment, thinking. 

They were sitting under a big oak tree, and all 

at once Davy's eye caught something in the 

leaves, just by his hand. 

278 



OCTOBER 



' ' This ! " he shouted, and held up an acorn. 
Right you are, Bsivj boy! The nut that 
stands at the head of the family. Few acorns 
are fit to be eaten, except by animals, but you 
see how round and perfect the family seal is, 
and though the acorn-cup is nothing like the 
chestnut-bur, or the husk of the hazel, it perhaps 
would be, if the green acorn itself was not so 
bitter that it does not need any other protection. 
The oak is one of the finest and most useful of 
all trees, and the hazel and chestnut and beech 
are probably very proud of belonging to the 
Oak family." 

^^And how about hickory and walnuts f 
asked Da\^. 

'^They are in a family together— the Walnut 
family. There are three kinds of walnuts— the 
English walnuts, the butternuts, and these. 
There are as many as half a dozen kinds of 
hickory nuts, and some of them are as bitter as 
the bitterest acorns." 

Pignuts— I know those," said Davy. 

279 



A LITTLE 



GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



^ ^They're awful. I tried to eat some last 
year. ' ' 

^^You gave me one, too," said Prne. ''I 
don 't think that was very nice of you. ' ' 

Davy blushed and grinned, as he recollected 
the round, puckered face of little Prue, after she 
had tasted the bitter nut. 

''Never mind, Prue; we'll give him a mock- 
orange some day, ' ' said her mother. 

''The pecan is a hickory-nut, too^" said the 
Chief Gardener, "a nut that has left all its bit- 
terness in the shell. ' ' 

"Davy is a pecan-nut,'' said little Prue. 
"He's just bad outside." 

Then the little party made ready to go home. 
They had a good way to drive, and it grows 
chilly on October evenings. How still it seemed 
to have grown in the woods when they were ready 
to go. A squirrel scrambled up a hickory-tree, 
and sat chattering at them as they drove away. 

"He is scolding us for carrying off his winter 
food," said big Prue. 

280 



OCTOBER 



^^Oh, let's leave him some!'' said little Prne, 
the tender-hearted. 

Pshaw!'' said Davy. There are enough 
nuts in these woods to feed all the squirrels in 
the world." 

Ill 

THERE ARE MANY THINGS CALLED FRUITS 

Truly October was harvest-time in the little 
garden. The winter apple-tree yielded several 
bushels of bright red fruit, and Davy's pumpkin- 
vine had great yellow pumpkins scattered all 
about. Some of them Davy could hardly lift, 
and when they were carried into the cellar, on 
the very last day of the month, they made a real 
pyramid of gold. Then there were some late 
tomatoes, too, and peppers, which big Prue made 
into pickles; also, a last gathering of green 
corn, besides several ears of ripe corn, for seed, 
and all the pop-corn— fifty-five ears of it from 
Davy^s little patch. 

281 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



There were some things to be taken up, too, 
and put into little pots for the window-gardens, 
which Davy and Prue were going to have all 
through the winter, this time. 

There was a good open fire in the dining- 
room when Dsivj came in, after picking his 
pumpkins, for the nights were getting colder, 
and the bright blaze seemed so friendly and 
cheerful. 

^ ' I am going to try some of my pop-corn, ' ' he 
said suddenly, and started for the popper. 

^'1^11 get some apples," said little Prue. 

'^1^11 bring some nuts,'' added the Chief Gar- 
dener. 

^^And I'm afraid if you have all those things 
now, you won't care for tea afterwards," ob- 
jected big Prue. 

Never mind tea," said Davy. These are 
the very best things for a fire like this, and then 
if we don^t want tea afterwards it'll save 
trouble." 

So the pop-corn and apples and nuts were 

282 



OCTOBER 

brought, and the little family gathered about the 
bright blaze. 

^'Just think," said Davy, ^4t's only a few 




THE APPLE IS A CALYX. THE PISTIL IS THE CORE INSIDE OF IT 

months ago that I planted this corn, and saw 
it come up, just little green sprouts, and now 
it^s ripe and in the popper." 

19— .-1 Little Garden Calendar 283 



A LITTLE GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



^^And just think, said his mother, ^'it's a 
little while ago that the apple-trees were all in 
bloom so sweet, and now the apples are ripe, 
and we have them here on a plate. ' ' 

^^I like to think abont the summer," said little 
Prue. ^^It all seems so nice and shiny. It was 
hot, though, too, sometimes, in the garden." 

The Chief Gardener picked up one of the 
apples. 

^'That is a pretty good calyx, Davy," he said. 

UaYj stopped popping corn a minute. His 
face was rather hot, anyway, from the glowing 
coals. 

^^Why, I thought that was the pistil," he said. 

^'The pistil is the core inside of it. It is the 
calyx of the apple-bloom that grows fleshy and 
makes the best part of the apple. ' ' 

The Chief Gardener cut the apple in half, and 
showed the faint line that marked the core. 

^^That was the pistil," he said, ^^and at the 
end you see there are still the tips of the sepals 
and little traces of the stamens. The apple is 

284 



OCTOBER 



one of our very finest fruits, and we ought to be 
glad that at least one of the Rose family has such 
a fine calyx. The rose itself gives us sweet 
flowers, but its apples would be pretty poor eat- 
ing. They are called hips. ' ' 

^^But is the peach a calyx, too?''' asked Davy. 
'*It belongs to the same family." 

^^No, the peach is just the pistil, and it is the 




A RASPBERRY IS A CLUSTER OF PISTILS WITHOUT THE CORE. 
A BLACKBERRY IS THE END OF A FLOWER-STEM 
WITH A CLUSTER OF PISTILS AROUND IT 



same with the plum and apricot and cherry. 
In the pear and quince it is the calyx, like the 
apple ; in the raspberry each little part is a sepa- 
rate pistil with one seed, as I believe I showed 
you once, last summer. ' ' 

285 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



*^How about the strawberries?" asked Prue. 
'^I like those best." 

^^I think I showed you that, too, but perhaps 
you have forgotten. The strawberry is still dif- 
ferent. It is neither a calyx nor a pistil, but just 
the pulpy top of the stem that the flowers rest 
upon. It is covered with tiny pistils, though, of 
one seed each." 

^ ' That is why strawberry seeds are on the out- 
side," said Davy. 

^^Yes, and the little pistils are called akenes, 
though you need not try to remember that now. " 

^^It is strange," said big Prue, ^^how many 
things become fruits." 

^/Yes," said the Chief Gardener. fig, for 
instance, is simply a hollow stalk which grows 
thick and pulpy, and has a lot of little flowers 
inside that turn to seed when the fig ripens. 
A pineapple is a cluster of flower-leaves. A 
strawberry is the end of a flower-stem. A 
blackberry is the same, with a little cluster of 
pulpy pistils on the outside. A raspberry is the 

286 



OCTOBER 



little cluster of pistils without the core ; so that 
the blackberry is really the connecting-link be- 
tween the strawberry and the raspberry. In 
gooseberries, grapes, cranberries, and huckle- 
berries we eat the entire pistil, seeds and all. 
In peaches, plums, and cherries we eat only the 
outer part, and in apples, pears, and quinces we 
eat only the calyx, unless we eat the core. ' ' 

^^Well, " interrupted Davy, ^^I am going to 
eat a nice big red calyx, now, core and all, and 
I 'm going to eat some hickory-nut and pop-corn 
pistils, all but the shells and cob, and I feel 
hungry enough to eat those, too. ' ' 

So then they drew closer around the bright 
blaze as evening gathered on the little faded 
garden outside. 



287 



NOVEMBER 



NOVEMBER 



I 

THERE ARE ANNUALS, BIENNIALS^ AND PERENNIALS 

BUT November was not all brown and dry. 
The warm days lingered. The lawn kept 
green, and suddenly about the house there 
was the most wonderful glory of yellow and rose 
and white and crimson, for the radiant flower of 
autumn, the chrysanthemum, was in full bloom. 
How beautiful the flowers were when the sun 
was bright, and when it was cloudy they seemed 
to have kept some of the sunlight and cheer to 
make the dooryard glad. 

don't remember when you planted the 
chrysanthemums," said Prue, one bright morn- 
ing to the Chief Gardener. 

291 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



*^No, it was when yon were a very little girl 
—about four years ago." 

^ ^ I remember, ' ' said Davy. ' ' I helped you. ' ' 

*^Why don't you have to plant them every 
year!" asked Prue. 

Because they are perennials— they live on, 
year after year." 

Prue did not seem to understand very well, so 
the Chief Gardener explained. 

There are three kinds of plants," he said: 
Annuals, biennials, and perennials. The an- 
nuals live but one season. They come from the 
seed each spring, and when they have grown and 
bloomed and made seed for another year they 
die. Sweet-pease and sunflowers and Davy's 
corn are annuals." 

'^And radishes and beets," said Davy. 

^^No, Davy. That is where you are mis- 
taken. ' ' 

*^But we have to plant them every spring,'' 
said Davy. 

''We do so to get good vegetables for our 

292 



NOVEMBER 



table. But if we were planting only for seed we 
would leave the roots in the ground, or take them 
up and reset them in the spring. Then they 
would send up long stalks to bloom and bear 
seed. Beets and radishes and turnips and most 
such things are biennials, which means that they 
bloom the second year and then die. They 
spend all the first year in laying up strength 
in the roots, to use in making seed the second 
summer. Some biennials, like the cabbage, lay 
up this strength in the thick stalk. The strength 
which they take up from the earth and from 
the air, through their leaves, they do not spend 
in flowers and show, but turn it into food for 
themselves, and the food is so good that men 
gather it for their own use." 

^^I don't think that is quite right," said Prue, 
after the poor thing has worked so hard all 
summer to be ready to bloom next year, for us 
to take it and eat it. ' ' 

The Chief Gardener smiled and shook his 
head. 

293 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



^^I^m afraid we do not think much about the 
plant's rights," he said, unless they happen to 
be the same as our own. And after all there 
are plenty of seeds saved every year— more than 
are ever planted. " 

^^And are potatoes biennials, too?" asked 
Davy. 

^^No, potatoes are perennials. In the right 
climate they would live on year after year, lay- 
ing up new strength each year for the next 
season's growth. Dahlias are perennials, too, 
and most of the grasses, and, of course, all trees, 
and shrubs. Your pinks, Prue, and sweet-wil- 
liams, and the hollyhocks, are perennial, and 
live through the winter, though they bear a great 
deal of seed, which shows how determined they 
are to live on. These chrysanthemums also 
bear seed, and most plants have at least two 
ways, and some as many as four ways of pro- 
ducing others like them. Your onions, Davy, 
can be produced in four different ways. They 
can be grown from seed, from sets— which are 

294 



NOVEMBER 



little seed-onions taken out of the ground and 
kept through the winter— from bulblets— which 
are the little onions you saw growing on the 
top of the stalk last summer— and from multi- 




THE SEED AND SETS OF THE ONION 



pliers— which are large bulbs broken into sev- 
eral small parts." 

' ' I should think an onion was surely perennial 
enough," said Davy, ''with four ways of keep- 
ing alive." 

295 



V 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 

'^Can you name the three kinds of plants 
now?" asked the Chief Gardener, turning to 
little Prue. 

'^Yes, " said Prue, putting out three fingers. 

Annuals that have to die every fall, like my 
sweet-pease. Bi-yennials, that have to die every 
other fall, like Davj^'s turnips. Only we don't 
let 'em die— we kill 'em and eat 'em just when 
thev are ready for their best time. Perennials, 
that have a lot of ways to live and never die at 
all." 

The Chief Gardener laughed. 
'^Well, that's pretty good for a little girl. I 
think we might almost make a poem out of it. 

"The annuals we plant each spring — 
They perish in the fall; 
Biennials die the second year, 
Perennials not at all. ^ ^ 

^^I've made a rhyme, too," said Prue. *^It's 
about the kinds of plants in a different way. 
This is it: 

**The kinds of plants are these — 
Herbs, shrubs, and trees.'' 

296 



N O \' E M B E R 



' ' Why, I think we shall have to make up some 
more, ' ' said the Chief Gardener. It will help us 
to remember." 

II 

PLANTS KNOW HOW^ TO SPREAD 

It was not many days after this that the Chief 
Gardener was digging among his vines, and he 
called to the children, who came running. 

^^We were talking the other day," he said, 
''about the many ways that old plants have of 
making new ones. See how this black rasp- 
berry vine is spreading. ' ' 

The Chief Gardener pointed to a long branch 
that had bent over until the end touched the 
earth. This end had taken root, and now a new 
little plant was there all formed and ready to 
grow the coming year. 

There is another just like it," said Davy, 
*^and another— why, there are lots of them!" 

^^Yes, the vine sends out many of those long 

297 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



slender branches with a heavy little bud at 
the end of each to weigh it down. Such 
branches are called stolons, and when the bud 
touches the earth it sends out roots. Straw- 
berries have runners which do the same thing. 
You will find plenty of them if you look in the 
patch. ' ' 

Davy and Prue went over to the strawberries 
and found that the vines, now red and brown 
from frost, had sent out runners, and made little 
new plants, like the black raspberries. 

^^You see," said the Chief Gardener, ^'we 
pick the berries, which are the seeds, so all berry 
vines must have some other way of spreading. 
The red raspberries do it in a different way. 
They send out runners, too, but they are from 
the roots, and when the sprouts come up, we 
call them suckers. Many kinds of plants have 
suckers, and there are some kinds of trees sprout 
so badly that they cannot be used for shade." 

'^What a lot of ways there are for plants to 
start!" said Daw. 

298 



N O V E M B E R 



^^SuiDpose we try to think of as many as we 
can," said the Chief Gardener. ^^You begin, 
Prue.'' 

Seeds and roots and bend-overs and stuek- 
ins," said Prue. '^That's four.'' 




A BLACK RASPBERRY VINE PREPARING TO SPREAD 



Davy and the Chief Gardener laughed. 

^^Well, that is a good start, but there are a 
good many kinds of roots and ^bend-overs,' and 
what are ^stuck-ins?' " 

20— .4 Little Garden Calendar 299 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



''Why, pieces stuck in the ground to grow. 
Mamma does it with her geraniums." 

^ ' Oh, slips ! I see. Why, Prne, your answer 
covers about everything, after all. Now, Davy, 
suppose we hear from you." 

^^Well, seeds— that's one. Bulbs, all the 
kinds, like the three onion kinds, and maybe 
other kinds, roots like the red raspberries, that 
make suckers and other kinds of roots, like pota- 
toes, and then all the runners and suckers that 
Prue calls ^bend-overs,' and slips and grafts and 
buds." 

^ ^ Stuck-ins, " nodded the Chief Gardener. 
'^Prue was about right after all, for there are 
so many kinds of each diJEferent thing, and so 
many ways, that T am afraid we should never 
remember all the kinds and ways. ^ Seeds and 
roots and bend-overs and stuck-ins ' take in about 
all of them, and we are not apt to forget it. If 
you'll come now, we'll look at some of the kinds 
of roots." 

They went down into the garden, and the 

300 



NOVEMBER 



Chief Gardener opened a hill of potatoes which 
had not been dug. Then he picked up one of the 
potatoes and showed it to Davy and Prue. 
''That kind of a root is called a tuber," he 




**WHAT ARE STUCK-INS? — OH, SLIPS !'* 



said. ''Those little spots on it are eyes, and 
make the sprouts. You remember we cut the 
potatoes we planted into little pieces, with one 
eye on each. ' ' 

301 



A LITTLE GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



remember," said Prue, ^^and I asked if 
they had eyes so they conld see which way to 
grow. " 

^^The pieces we planted sprouted, and kept 
the sprout growing until it could send out roots. 
Besides the roots, there were little underground 
branches, and a potato formed on the end of 
each branch. When the soil and the season are 
both good there will be a great many of these 
branches and new tubers, but when the soil is 
poor and the season bad there will be very little 
besides roots." 

The children followed the Chief Gardener, 
and dug up a bunch of thick dahlia roots, and 
he told them how these were really roots, and 
not tubers, like the potatoes. Then he dug up 
some sweet-flag, and they saw how the rough 
root-pieces were joined one to the other, in a 
sort of chain of roots, and these he told them 
were root-stalks, and that they kept a store of 
nourishment for the new plants, in the spring. 

* ^ There is a grass, ' ' he said, ' ' which has such a 

302 



NOVEMBER 



root, and every time it is cut it sends up a new 
plant, so that every time the farmer tries to get 
it out of his grain-field he only makes more 
plants, unless he pulls up every piece and de- 
stroys it. You see, that grass has to fight to 
live, and it makes one of the very best fights 
of any plant I know, except the Canada thistle, 
which does very much the same thing. And 
that is what all plant life is. It is the struggle 
to live and grow and spread. The struggle with 
men and animals and heat and cold and with 
other plants. And in the struggle the plants, 
and especially the weeds, which have to fight 
hardest, have grown strong and persevering, 
and have learned a thousand ways to multiply 
their roots and to scatter their seed. ' ' 

III 

ALL THANKS FOR THE PLANTS 

Thanksgiving brought the usual good dinner, 
and upon the table and the sideboard there were 

303 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



many things to remind the little family of their 
garden and their summer-time. There was a 
large plate of red apples and a dish of nuts, and 
there was a pot of pinks, which Prue had saved 
for her window-garden. Then there was a fine 
little jar of pickles, made from Davy's toma- 
toes, besides dishes of tomatoes and turnips, all 
from the little garden that had come and gone, 
leaving these good things and many pleasant 
memories behind. 

And after the dinner was over, and the pud- 
ding eaten and the nuts passed, the little family 
sat around the table to talk, as they often did. 

^^I am sure we have a great deal to be thank- 
ful for this year," said big Prue. ^^Two such 
nice healthy children, with plenty to eat and 
wear, and a fire to keep us warm, and a good 
roof over our heads." 

^^And all from the plants," said the Chief 
Gardener. '^If we are thankful for the plants, 
we are thankful for almost everything we 
have." 

304 



N O V E M B E R 



Davy sat tliinkiiig silently about this, but lit- 
tle Prue did not quite understand. 

' ' I suppose you mean that the plants made us 
healthy to work in them, ' ' she said. 

' ' I mean that, and I mean a great many other 
things. In the first place, plants furnish all the 
food in the world. Not only the vegetables, but 
the animal-food. Our turkey would not have 
been here to-day if he had not been fed on grain, 
and even the oysters must live from a sort of 
plant-food in the sea. Every creature that 
walks or flies or swims lives either on plants 
themselves or from some creature that does live 
on them. ' ' 

^^Do sharks live on plants, too?" asked Prue. 

' ' Of course ! ' ' said DaA^\ ' ' Sharks eat men, 
and men eat plants. ' ' 

^^I don't suppose sharks live altogether on 
men, ' ' laughed big Prue, ' ' and the little fish they 
eat may live on other little fish, but if you go 
far enough you will find that somewhere the 
beginning is plant-life." 

305 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



Plants also warm and light us/' went on 
the Chief Gardener. ''Every stick of wood, or 
bit of coal, or drop of oil we burn, comes from 
plant-life. The coal was vegetation long ago— 
very long ago— and the heat and light that 
come from it were stored there in that far-away 
time by the green leaves that drew in life and 
light from the sunbeams." 

''Do the leaves really take up light?" asked 
Da^";^\ 

"They really do. AVith every particle of 
vegetable matter that is made, a portion of the 
sun's heat and light is laid up in it. The light is 
still in the coal, though it looks so black. We 
have only to burn it, to get back the sunlight." 

That was a very wonderful thought to the 
children, and they had to talk about it a great 
deal before the Chief Gardener went on. 

"Every bit of clothing we wear comes from 
the plants, ' ' he said at last. ' ' The cotton grows 
like the down about the thistle seed, and the wool 
that grows on the sheep's back is there because 

306 



NOVEMBER 



the sheep feeds on the green grass in summer 
and upon hay and grain in the winter-time. 
Silk is made by worms from mulberry leaves, 
linen is from the flax plant, and leather from 




THE WOOL THAT GROWS ON THE SHEEP'S BACK IS THERE BECAUSE 
THE SHEEP FEEDS ON THE GREEN GRASS IN SUMMER 

the cattle that grow in the same way that the 
sheep grows. 

' ' Then there is our house. A great deal of it 
is made from wood, and even the bricks have 

307 



A LITTLE 



G A R D E X 



CALENDAR 



vegetable matter in tliem, while, the stones are 
shaped by tools that have wooden handles, and 
the bricks and stones are hanled in wooden 
carts. ' ' 

^^Bnt the iron doesn't grow, Papa," said lit- 
tle Prne. 

^^No, bnt without heat to forge it— heat that 
comes from wood and coal— it would be of no 
use." 

' ' But there is one other thing that is more to 
us than all the rest. Plants purify the air we 
breathe. Air that we have breathed once is not 
fit for us again. We have used the oxygen 
from it, and turned it into carbonic acid gas. 
But carbonic acid gas is just what the plants 
need, so they take our breathed air and turn it 
into oxygen again and give it back to us fresh 
and pure, so that we can keep our life and 
health." 

^^Don^t forget the flowers. Papa," said little 
Prue. 

^^I haven't forgotten them. If it were not 

308 



NOVEMBER 



for the flowers many of the plants would die 
out, and besides being so useful, the flowers feed 
the bees and make the world beautiful, and our 
lives happier and sweeter, by filling them with 
color and perfume and loveliness. No, I could 
hardly forget the flowers, Prue. They are the 
crowning glory of the plants that feed and 
clothe and warm and shelter us. So let us be 
thankful for the plants, every part of them, and 
especially for the flowers." 

^^We ought to be thankful for the sun that 
makes them grow, too," said Davy. 

^'And we must not forget the One to whom all 
thanks are due, ' ' added his mother. 

And as the November day closed in they 
gathered around the big open fire, and were 
happy and cheerful in the blaze of the same 
sunbeams that had shone on the great forests 
which had perished so many ages ago. 



309 



DECEMBER 



DECEMBER 



I 

NEW GARDENS IN THE WINDOWS 

DECEMBER was a month for putting 
tilings away. The envelopes of seeds 
which Davy and Prue and the Chief 
Gardener had gathered were all put into sepa- 
rate tin boxes, and these boxes were put in a 
dry place on the top cupboard shelf, where they 
would not be disturbed. The bulbs and roots 
were also put into dry boxes in the basement, 
and the different kinds labelled in large plain 
letters by Davy, who could print very nicely 
indeed. 

The bulbs were quite interesting. Some, like 
those of the Easter lily, had small bulbs formed 
inside of them. Others, like the crocus, had 

313 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



tiny bulbs formed on the outside, and then there 
were bulblets which had formed above the 
ground, just where the leaf joins the stalk. 
These were little lily bulbs. 

So all the seeds and bulbs and roots were put 
away for the winter, except a few that Davy and 
Prue planted in some pots for their window- 
gardens. 

They decided to have different things this 
year. Instead of scarlet runners to climb on 
the sides of his window, Davy had decided to 
have melon vines. His cantaloupes had not 
done very well in the garden, for the reason that 
the pumpkin had sent its long tendrils across 
the cantaloupe bed, and the pollen had been 
carried from the flowers of one to the other by 
the busy bees, and this caused all his cantaloupes 
to have a flavor of pumpkin. Davy had eaten 
them, though, and even little Prue had said they 
were not so very bad, and had really eaten 
nearly all of one piece. Now, Davy was going 
to have two cantaloupe \nnes, and let them climb 

314 



DECEMBER 



on each side of his window, and see if he couldn't 
raise some melons that folks would be glad to 
get a piece of. 

In the middle of his window he was going to 
have an eggplant, which he very much wanted 
to try, and in the little pots at the sides, there 
were to be a peanut, which he wanted to try, 
too, and a special little red pepper which had 
looked very nice in the seed-catalogue. Then 
there were two little pots, one holding a small 
turnip and the other a radish, which Davy 
wanted to see bloom and go to seed. 

So, you see, Davy's garden was going to be 
quite different this year, and Prue's was dif- 
ferent, too. For Prue did not have morning- 
glories to climb, this winter. Not because she 
did not like them, but because she wanted her 
window, like Davy's, to be different from the 
window of the winter before. She had a 
cypress vine planted this year, on one side, and 
a moon vine on the other. And in the center of 
her window, she was to have a cosmos flower, 

21— A Little Garden Calendar 315 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



with, a fuchsia and a hyacinth and a tnlip at the 
sides, and one of her precious pinks brought in 
from the summer garden. Of course, the tulip 
and the hyacinth were to grow from little bulbs, 




A JAPANESE FERN-BALL 



while the fuchsia was a small plant which she 
had bought at the greenhouse. And in this 
way both the windows were to be very dif- 
ferent from the winter before, and many new 

^ 316 



DECEMBER 



things were to be learned in seeing the seeds and 
the bulbs and the roots sprout and grow and 
bloom. 

And there was one thing more which was to be 
different, for Prue and Davy had put their 
money together and bought a Japanese fern-ball 
to hang between the windows, and a hook to 
hang it on. The ball they soaked in warm 
water, as the directions had said, and then hung 
it on the hook. As often as it seemed dry they 
soaked it again, and one day it was sending out 
little green points, and soon, even before the rest 
of their window-garden was fairly started, there 
were feathery little fern leaves all over the ball, 
and before Christmas it was very beautiful in- 
deed. 

II 

TO THE GARDEIT OF SLEEP 

December was not a very bright month for 
Davy and Prue. Very little snow fell, so they 
could not use their sleds. If it had not been for 

317 



A L I T T L E G A R D E X CALENDAR 



their gardens and their lessons, which took 
several hours each day, they would have been 
rather lonely, looking out on brown woods and 
meadows. 

But there was the joy of Christmas coming, 
and this thought made them happier, as each 
day brought it nearer. They counted the weeks 
first, then the days, and at last the hours. And 
then they had secrets. Secrets from big Prue 
and the Chief Gardener, and secrets from each 
other. Sometimes little Prue whispered to big 
Prue, and did not want Davy to hear. Some- 
times Davy whispered to the Chief Gardener, 
and stopped very quick and began to whistle, if 
Prue came into the room. Packages began to 
be brought in after dark, or when everybody 
else was upstairs, and then, one afternoon— the 
afternoon of that wonderful eve when stillness 
and mystery seem to gather on the fields— 
there was a row of stockings along the mantel, 
hanging ready for somebody to fill. Santa 
Claus, of course, must do that, but there were 

318 



DECEMBER 

packages hidden here and there for the good old 
Saint to find and put where they belonged. And 
Prue and Davy were in bed almost before dark, 
because you see the time passes quicker if you 
are asleep, and the sooner to bed the sooner to 
sleep. But when big Prue came in to kiss them 
good-night she told them a story— the old sweet 
story of tlie Little Child who was born so long 
ago, and to whom the first gifts were brought 
by the wise men. And then she told how that 
little baby boy in the manger had become a sweet 
child, with games and playmates like other chil- 
dren, with toys and, perhaps, a little garden of 
his own, something as they had made during the 
summer-time. And she told also a little storv 
which, perhaps, is only a story, but it is what it 
would seem might have happened to the Little 
Child of Bethlehem. 

^^Once, " she said, ^^when he was playing he 
grew very tired and thirsty, and his playmate 
was very thirsty, too. So Jesus ran to the well 
for a cup of water, and hurried back with it 

319 



A LITTLE 



GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



without stopping to drink. But his playmate 
was greedy, for he seized the cup and drank it 
all, except a few drops at the bottom. Then he 
gave the empty cup to Jesus, who took it and 
let the last few drops fall on the grass, when 
suddenly from where they fell there flowed a 
little clear stream of water, with lilies-of-the- 
valley blooming along its banks." 

''Please sing the verse about the story of 
old, ' ' said Dsivj. when she had finished. 

So his mother sang: 

think, when I read that sweet story of old, 
How Jesus was here among men, 
How he called little children as lambs to his fold, 
I should like to have been with them then. ' ' 

And it was only a moment longer that the 
Christmas Saint had to wait on the sand-man, 
for presently the door closed softly on the 
singer. Davy and Prue had entered the fair 
garden of sleep. 



320 



DECEMBER 



III 

IN THE GARDENS OF CHRISTMAS 

I CANNOT tell yon all the wonders of that 
Christmas. I can only tell yon that the presents 
which the little family had bonght for one an- 
other were all in their proper places next morn- 
ing, and that there were ever so many things 
that nobody bnt Santa Clans conld possibly 
have bronght. There was a Christmas tree, for 
one thing, the kind of a tree that nobody bnt 
Santa Clans ever raises, or brings, and there 
was everything npon it and abont it that a little 
boy and girl conld want, unless they wanted a 
great deal more than a little boy and girl ought 
to have, at one time. 

Bnt the very finest Christmas gift of all was a 
splendid great big snow-storm, which had begun 
in the night and was still going on, as fast and 
as thick as the big, soft, fleecy flakes could fall. 
Every few minutes the children left the beauti- 

32 T 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



ful tree to look at the beautiful snow. They 
could hardly wait until breakfast was over, and 
the Chief Gardener had made a photograph of 
the tree with them in it, before they wanted to 
rush out with their sleds. 

All at once Davy called Prue to the window. 

^"'^Look, " he said, ^^some of these flakes on the 
window-sash are like little white flowers!" 

Then every one came to see, and, sure enough, 
some of the snowflakes that had fallen next to 
the glass were wonderfully shaped, and did look 
like tiny blossoms. The Chief Gardener got a 
magnifying-glass and they looked at them 
through it, when they saw how really beautiful 
they were. 

"l liRve heard them called ^the flowers of win- 
ter,'' said big Prue. There is a little story 
about how the flowers complained that they must 
all die when cold weather came, and never see 
the winter. So then their spirits were allowed 
to come back as snowflakes." 

That was a glorious Christmas. All day the 

322 



DECEMBER 



snow came down outside, and all day the big 
fire blazed and the Christmas tree gleamed and 
shimmered and sparkled inside. And then, in 




THE KIND OF A TREE THAT NOBODY BUT SANTA 
CLAUS EVER RAISES 



A LITTLE 



GARDEN 



CALENDAR 



the afternoon, there was a Christmas dinner 
which was quite as good as any of the rest of the 
things, even to the snow. And after the dinner 
was over, and they sat around the fire, the Chief 
Gardener said: 

**We have had a happy year. I know it has 
been happy, for the time has gone so fast. It 
seems not more than a few weeks ago that we 
were keeping last Christmas, and almost no time 
at all since Prue and Da\^^ started their first 
little gardens in the window. Yet, a week from 
to-day, and that will be a year ago, too. Now, 
I have a plan. It was Prue who made me think 
of it. She said something not long ago that I 
made into a little verse, about annuals, biennials, 
and perennials. Then Prue made one, too, 
about herbs and shrubs and trees. Now I pro- 
pose that we each make some rhymes for New 
Year's day to celebrate the starting of the win- 
dow-garden, and also the little garden which 
Prue and Davy had outside. The rhjnnes must 
tell something that has been learned during the 

324 



DECEMBER 



year, and they must be short, and easy to re- 
member. Of course, we won't expect very 
much, but Prue has done so well, that I am sure 
the rest of us can do something, too. ' ' 

^^I never made any rhjTiies," said Davy. 

^^I'll help you," said Prue. ^^It's just as 
easy." 

So they all agreed, and during the holidays, 
when the children were not busy with their sleds 
or books or gardens, they were making rhymes. 

IV 

SOME VERSES AND THEN GOOD-BY 

And these are the rhjnnes that were read and 
recited after dinner on New Year's day, just a 
year after the first little window-garden was 
started. I shall not tell you whose they were. 

Of course, you will all remember little Prue 's : 

*'The kinds of plants are these, 
Herbs and shrubs, and trees,** 

325 



A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



and the Chief Gardener 's : 

* ^ The annuals we plant each spring — 
They perish in the fall; 
Biennials die the second year, 
Perennials not at all/^ 

but the writers of the others you will have to 
guess. 

THE PLANT 

The parts of every plant are three — 
The root, and stem, and leaf they be. 
The flowers are only leaves more fair, 
Which nature makes, to bloom and bear. 



THE ROOT 

Most roots are hidden in the ground. 
As they should aJivays be, by rights, 

But some in other plants are found. 
And these belong to parasites. 



THE STEM 

The stem may be a stalk or vine 
To stand erect, or creep, or twine — 
For frailest plant, or firmest oak 
That's ne'er by storm of winter broke. 



THE LEAF 

A leaf has a stem, and of stipules a pair. 
Though the stipules are often quite small, or not there. 

326 



DECEMBER 



A leaf has a blade, and of ribs one or more ; 

While of veins and of veinlets it has many score. 

A leaf may be simple, or it may be compound. 

And a million small pores for its breathing are found. 

THE FLOWER 

The blossom has a calyx 

That is very often green, 
And just above the sepals 

The corolla bright is seen. 
And above the pretty petals 

May be stamens eight or nine — 
Slender filaments, and anthers, 

To hold the pollen fine. 
While in the blossom's center 

Doth the sturdy pistil grow. 
With stigma and with style that lead 

To seed-cups just below. 

HOW PLANTS INCREASE 

From seed and from runner, from stolon bent low — 
From sucker and slip and from layer they grow — 
From bulb and from bulblet — from tuber and root. 
They give us the flower and the grain and the fruit. 

All thanks to the plants for the clothes that we wear — 
The food that we eat and the home that we share — 
For the air that we breathe and the fuel we burn — 
All thanks to the plants, ^tis our only return. 

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A LITTLE GARDEN CALENDAR 



Davy rather objected to the last line of these 
verses. He said that it was some return to take 
good care of plants, especially in the hot sum- 
mer-time, when it was ever so much nicer to sit 
in the shade. So another little rhyme was 
made, like this : 

A plant should have the sun and air 
And water, and the proper care. 
If it has these, and doesn ^t die, 
We'll reap the harvest, by and by. 

Then to end the day they all sang a little song 
about the snow-flakes, that Jack Frost sends out 
of his gardens of winter-time : 

THE SNOWFLAKES 

Jack Frost, he makes the snowflakes, 

He paints the snowflakes white. 
He sent them Christmas morning 

To make our landscape bright. 

For in the deepest winter 

The world is bleak and bare — 
Jack Frost, he sends the snowflakes 

To make our winter fair. 

And so ends the story of a year, and of its 
little gardens. Also of Prue and Davy, who 

328 



DECEMBER 



owned the little gardens, and of her who was 
called big Prue and of him who was called the 
Chief Gardener. Other years will bring other 
gardens, and other summers. Prue and Davy 
will grow older, and learn more and more with 
each year that passes. But no year will ever 
be happier and no gardens ever brighter than 
those to which we are now saying good-by. 



329 



MAY 5 1905 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




